


Someday

by Scribe32oz



Series: Seven Scrolls [27]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Brotherhood, Children of Characters, Ensemble Cast, F/M, Friendship, Future Fic, Humor, Magic, Minor Violence, Mystery, Novella, Series, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-02-12 01:32:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 77,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12948429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribe32oz/pseuds/Scribe32oz
Summary: When Billy Travis returns home to Four Corners from West Point, he discovers that his younger siblings and friends are just as capable of getting into trouble as their fathers who once the known as the Magnificent Seven....FUTURE FIC.





	1. The Christening

 

One hundred years after the time that Chris Larabee found himself standing within the confines of the church built by the labour of Josiah Sanchez' faith, a prominent archaeologist would coined the term by which the gunslinger was presently considering his life.

  _Punctuated gradualism_ , the noted scholar would call it.

 Sudden changes that take occur between extended periods of steady continuity. Chris life was a perfect example of the term in the sense that the best and worst moments in his life seem to follow a period of calm. When he had lost Sarah and Adam, he had experienced eight years of unbelievable bliss being her husband and father to her child. The great change of their loss set him on another path, a rather self destructive one until one day, he happened across town that was about to have a lynching even though he did not know he had reached another crossroads at the time.

There would be other crossroads in his life and here he was at the most recent. While he ought to be paying attention, he could not help drift in and out of his memories, remembering the day he had stepped into that fight with Vin, had been a day like no other. In a space of 24 hours,  _everything_  had changed and there were still instances where he had trouble believing it had happened. He had met Vin Tanner and saw for the first time in his life, the one thing that might convince him that perhaps it was not for the best if he had died with his wife and child. A flash of gold hair before his eyes and it was forever branded into his mind, plaguing him for the next year until he found the courage to do something about it. With Vin, came the five men who would set him on the path to this second in time by their camaraderie and their friendship. Becoming one of the fellowship had saved his life. Chris was not so arrogant that he did not know that. 

They were all here with him, this curious family of his that did not just include his dear Mary, his sons Billy and Michael but the six men he rode with and the women they loved with the children that were and would someday come. He saw Vin standing not to far away, with Alex at his arm. The tracker was shifting uncomfortably in his heavy coat and Chris forgave him for his impatience because Vin was still suffering a serious injury following their encounter with one of their many enemies. However, there was no way that he was missing the occasion because his body was not up to it. His wife, the doctor who had brought Michael into the world, leaned her head against his shoulder, carried away by the soft drone of Josiah's voice as he continued to speak. 

_Sun, Moon, Stars, all you that move in the heavens, hear us!_

_Into your midst has come a new life._

_Make his path smooth, that he/she may reach the brow of the first hill!_

_Winds, Clouds, Rain, Mist, all you that move in the air, hear us!_

_Into your midst has come a new life._

_Make his path smooth, that he may reach the brow of the second hill!_

_Hills, Valleys, Rivers, Lakes, Trees, Grasses, all you of the earth, hear us!_

_Into your midst has come a new life._

_Make his path smooth, that he may reach the brow of the third hill!_  

_Birds, great and small, that fly in the air,_

_Animals, great and small, that dwell in the forest,_

_Insects that creep among the grasses and burrow in the ground, hear us!_

_Into your midst has come a new life._

_Make his path smooth, that he may reach the brow of the fourth hill!_

_All you of the heavens, all you of the air, all you of the earth, hear us!_

_Into your midst has come a new life._

_Make his path smooth, then shall he travel beyond the four hills!_  

Alex seemed to smile wider when Josiah concluded the verse and offered Vin a proud smile, Chris noticed. She had every reason to be pleased because it had been Vin who suggested they use this verse in place of traditional Christian recitals. The Indians used something similar to welcome their own children into the world and Chris had to admit he liked it and Mary, who was always a staunch supporter of Native rights agreed with him at the simplicity of its content. At this moment, it was a feeling shared by everyone in the church because he could see the same smile of soaring spirits among all the members of his extended family. 

Chris could see Inez dab a white handkerchief to her corner of her eye as the glistening he had seen earlier formed into tears of emotion. She was at best, a force of nature, their Inez. All fire and heat but within, she was soft like honey and the moments like these made her melt inside. As she cradled her own babe in her arms, little Elena Rose who would one day be an astonishing beauty, Chris found himself thinking that Inez had never looked lovelier and his jaded insides curled into a little smile. Buck Wilmington wrapped his arm around his wife, wearing a thoroughly relaxed smile as he leaned over and kissed her gently on the head before looking straight again. It was hard to believe that Buck could ever be pinned down by domesticity, Chris thought but he had been for the length of Elena's life and made the transition from rogue to family man so flawlessly that it was hard to imagine that he was ever anything else once. 

Ezra was stretched out on the wooden seat wearing that same languid expression he wore when he was about to move in for the kill after enticing some helpless victim into the arena of the felt covered table where he ruled supreme. It was never possible to quite know what Ezra Standish was thinking even when he was among friends. However, Chris noted the softness in his usually impenetrable green eyes and knew that the small dimpled smile was a genuine reflection of his secret inner soul. Impeccably dressed as always, he had donned his best for the day and Chris felt some measure of honor in knowing that the occasion meant so much to Ezra that he would make the effort.  

Next to him, Julia Pemberton's emotions were not so guarded as Ezra's, her emerald colored eyes sparkled and Chris wondered what it was about events like these and weddings that seemed to strike such a chord with women. It was a testament to her beauty that even with tears rolling down her cheeks, she was still a sight to behold. She had told him once that she had come from a large family but still never felt as much apart of one until she had arrived in Four Corners. Seeing Julia dry her tears with the lace linen in her gloved hand, Chris could well believe it. 

A sudden movement by JD Dunne as he adjusted the starchy collar around his neck, shifted Chris' gaze from Julia to the young man who was seated further along the same pew occupied by Julia and Ezra with his fiancée Casey Wells and her graceful looking aunt, Nettie Wells. JD was dressed in his best as they all were but it was he who just him who appeared most uncomfortable in them. Despite his best effort not to fidget, he was unable to keep from tugging at the shirt or the collar that was irritating him in unison. Chris had to stifle a smile because he looked so much like Billy flinching in his Sunday clothes that it was uncanny. Even though Chris had reason to see JD as a man lately, not simply because of his engagement but because the experiences he had come away with since joining the fellowship, he still seemed like very much the boy right this minute. Without any of his older peers being aware of it, JD had become a man and while they still tended to treat him like a kid, it was becoming increasingly hard to ignore the maturity that he now carried himself with. 

Of course that was not always so when Casey caught sight of him pulling at his collar again and leaned over and jabbed him gently in the ribs. JD threw her a little scowl and whispered something else in her ear which made her jaw drop open in outrage and brought a little hint of red to a her cheeks. She was about to hiss back when Nettie, armed with the poise that could only come with a lady of her bearing, leaned over and said something to both of them that silenced the duo immediately. Chris found himself shaking his head at how much the whole scene reminded him of Billy's antics with Lilith at times.  

Thinking about Billy immediately made Chris seek out his stepson. The boy who might have as well have been his own child because of how much Chris loved the kid, was presently sitting next to Marcus Larabee. Upon hearing the news that he had another new grandson, nothing could keep the crusty old general from journeying to Four Corners to attend the christening. Billy had been following the general ever since Larabee had hit town and while the general would have to be put at gunpoint to admit it, Chris was certain he enjoyed regaling his grandson with tales about his life in the army. Chris had not made mention of it to Mary as of yet but he had a feeling that the twinkle Billy had in his eyes every time he saw his grandfather's uniform was not just a passing fancy.  

Of course that uniform had the same effect on him when Chris had been a child too. 

In order to let his best friend sit next to him during the ceremony, Audrey King and Lilith were sharing the lengthy seat with Billy and the general. The two children were sitting side by side and while Audrey's gaze was fixed on Josiah as he held Michael in his arms making a recital of the holy sacraments. She was a handsome woman Chris found himself thinking, who must have been quite something in her youth. He wondered what it was about Four Corners that brought such strong women to its principality. First Mary, then Inez, followed by Alex and then Julia. Audrey was no exception and on the few occasions he had happened to chance upon her, delighted in astonishing her with his knowledge of books by bringing up a few that did not seem like the usual reading material for a hardened gunslinger. 

In the meantime, there was something about Lilith King that Chris had not quite figured out yet but decided he would once he put his mind to it. He looked at the lovely blond child and saw things in her eyes that were not quite what one would see reflected in a child. If he had to put a name to it, Chris would say that Lilith had secrets and there were not the kind of secrets that children had or for that matter adults even, they were the kind of secrets that the word was first formed to confine. He saw mystery and things older than himself staring back at him even though she was like an other little girl with sunstreaked blond hair and aquamarine eyes. 

He saw a hand ran through luxurious dark hair and Chris glanced instinctively at Rain who was nestled quite comfortably against the crook of Nathan Jackson's shoulder as she watched with a smile, the proceedings taking place before them. The sunlight through the window was bouncing off the long strands of wild, jet colored hair, sending a reflection of deep auburn in all directions that had well and truly captured Nathan's wonder. Chris could see the healer using his talented finger to play with the warm strands, with a smile that Chris knew all too well when he saw the sun bouncing off Mary's hair in the same way. For that instant, Chris felt as much kinship as he ever could have with the healer and decided what bound men together, was the soul inside them, not the colour of their skin.  

"I baptize you....." Josiah's words sliced through Chris' thoughts and he returned his attention to the proceedings, suddenly feeling Mary's grip around his hand tighten when Josiah took baby Michael from her. 

His wife had tears in her eyes but there was nothing sad about how she looked. The radiance that glowed of her face as she glanced at him and smiled almost stopped his heart in his chest and made Chris wonder how a man could be blessed twice in a lifetime. Chris wrapped his arms around her shoulders and drew her to him in a warm hug as they both watched Josiah complete the final part of the ritual. Their child gurgled happily in the giant's formidable hand and a slight splash of water and a long plaintive wail of cold discomfort rang throughout the church that touched the heart of everyone who was present for the gathering. 

"Michael Vin Larabee." Josiah concluded with a wide grin that mirrored the emotions in the room much better than words could ever do.

Chris watched Mary retrieve their child from his arms and she placated Michael with a few soft words before the wailing ceased and the child became just as lost in that soft voice as Chris had done a thousand times before.  

A hundred years from now, an archaeologist would find the word to describe a moment like this and he would  _still_  be wrong.

 


	2. Home Coming

It seemed the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

As the stagecoach rumbled into town, Billy Travis found himself thinking of the time he made this same journey almost twelve years ago before. Back then, coming home to Four Corners was not an event he looked forward to with any kind of excitement. There were demons in his youth that still lingered in his mind to this day but they had been the most potent when he came home to Four Corners for the first time after  being sent away by his mother to Eagle Bend to live with his grandfather Orin Travis. He remembered spending most of the ride from Eagle Bend being terrified of what he would find when he reached the town, thinking with thoughts only a child could have of the evil that awaited him upon his arrival.

The man had called himself the Devil and for the year preceding Billy’s return to Four Corners, the child he had been lived in fear  the Devil would find him and his Ma and visit upon them the same fate that he bestowed upon Stephen Travis. Billy could not know the Devil was very human indeed and it was all a ruse to intimidate a frightened child into silence about what he witnessed the night he saw his father die. It was only after Billy returned home to Four Corners and helped bring the man to justice, did the nightmares stop. In doing so however, Billy found a new arrival in his life that was almost as precious to him as his father he lost and the years ahead would supplant what memories he had of Stephen Travis.

As much as he loved his father and was proud to call himself Stephen Travis’s son, the truth was Billy regarded Chris Larabee more in that role than the former. The adult in him understood it was not Stephen’s choice to die but the child in him still could not imagine anyone else being there when he remembered the focal points of his life. He remembered riding his first horse, having his first crush, learning to shoot and all those other moments that led to manhood and could only remember Chris guiding him through all of it.

Thinking about his stepfather made Billy wonder where the man would be when he arrived in Four Corners. His arrival home was a day early but the opportunity to shorten his trip towards home and surprising those waiting for him was more than the devil in him could resist. With his return clearly unexpected, there would be no reason for Chris to be in town and Billy guessed he would probably be at the ranch. If time permitted when he got to Four Corners, Billy considered riding out there and seeing how the Lucky 7 ranch was progressing. Even though he had seen it only six months ago during his last trip home, Billy could not help examine everything about his hometown under deep scrutiny whenever he returned.

Billy glanced out the window as the stage broke the town limits and paid little attention to the other passengers in the carriage within the old Concord. He was far more interested in basking in the familiar sights of home and never tired of these first few minutes when the town of Four Corners suddenly sprung up around him. A part of him felt a little foolish, after all, he almost twenty years old, damn near to graduating from West Point Academy and yet whenever he came back home, he still felt like a little boy all over again.

The first thing he recognized was of course the Pemberton Emporium, still the largest mercantile establishment in the town and  its largest employer, next to the farms and ranches scattered around the area. The place was recently painted and renovated to add a few more buildings and Billy reminded himself to call in on its lovely owner, Julia Standish. Maybe even have a little ice cream, he thought with a smile at that fond memory, so distant in his mind. He spent most of his youth dreaming about her. Hell, he had even challenged Ezra Standish to a game of Go Fish for her hand. Now, Billy wondered how he could have been so smitten to lose all good sense when his heart should have been elsewhere. 

Not too far from the Emporium, Billy caught sight of Josiah's church, rebuilt after a fire gutted it a few years ago. Instead of having to do the work himself after that catastrophe, as he had when he first put the original together, the restoration of Josiah's church had been a town effort with manpower and resources put at his disposal. Although the new church was very impressive with all the hallmarks that made it a place of worship, Billy still had the feeling Josiah never stopped missing the church he had built with his own two hands, when his faith had walked a troubled path. 

Of course Josiah was not a man of the cloth in any real sense of the word but the people of Four Corners did not wish for anyone else to occupy the building and so Josiah spent his time between the church and playing deputy to the town. However, if he was at neither place, it was mostly like he would be at home with Audrey King whom he had married a few years ago.  

The stage rumbled past the jailhouse and Billy knew instinctively Sheriff Dunne would be absent. The time of the day told the young man the sheriff would most likely be making the rounds of town as he had done for much of the last decade. Of the seven, it was JD who had made peacekeeping a career. However, whenever trouble blew into town with particularly nasty overtones, the sheriff could always be counted upon to have the support of five unofficial and one official deputy to watch his back. When JD first took up the post, most of the town were certain he would never be able to manage on his own. Still with Josiah's wise counsel and the other members of the seven keeping a close eye in case he got into trouble, JD soon grew into the role and made it his own. Eventually, he gained a decent reputation as a lawman and that reputation had more to do with keeping trouble away than the six men who would die to protect him. 

The stage finally came to a stop with a slight shudder of the carriage and Billy could hear the slight jingle of reins and bits as the driver began to disembark from the top of the Concord. Billy did not wait for the man to open the door, stepping out of the small confines into the sunlight. The air smelt as it always did, piquant with heat that seemed to warm every part of him upon breathing it into his lungs. He squinted the sun out of his eyes as he stepped onto the boardwalk that ran past the Standish Hotel.  

Dusting off his coat as he looked inside the glass window of the hotel saloon, he did not see Ezra and was not expecting to. Despite having won the place some years ago, Ezra still preferred to hold court in the Standish Tavern on the other side of the street. While some might ponder why the gambler would remain playing in an establishment, which was not exactly luxurious as the saloon in the hotel, Billy supposed they just did not know Ezra. Even though the gambler had invested much of his earnings into property, there was no doubt that the first place he owned was the one he loved the most.

Billy glanced at the Standish Tavern and wondered if he should call in because he would not mind a drink after the long journey, besides he would not mind saying hello to Inez and to Ezra if the gambler was there. However, he soon reminded himself that there were other people he had to see first and the promise of libations as Ezra put it could wait. Besides, he was hungry and like most young men who went away from home, what he wanted more than anything was a taste of his mother's cooking. Grabbing the carpetbag that was unloaded from the top of the stagecoach, Billy offered the usual gratuity and started heading for home. 

A few people greeted him as he walked past, Gloria Potter commented that he had grown so much even though he was the same height as he had been when she last saw him six months ago. He half listened to some piece of gossip regarding one of the Patterson girls being married before politely excusing himself and continuing on his way. He paused outside Gloria's store for a moment when he saw a little boy, not quite six years old working a piece of wood with a knife and being very careful about it even though his small hands had more dexterity than it might normally appear for someone his age. Billy smiled at the small boy with dark gold hair, shaping the wood into what was apparently a horse of some kind.  

"Hey there Kyle." Billy greeted. 

The boy turned around and exclaimed. "Billy! You're home!" Dropping what he was doing, the little boy was in his arms in a second, embracing his older brother hard. 

"What are you doing out here on your own? I didn't think you were big enough to let out of Ma's sight." Billy asked as he swooped down and lifted Kyle up with ease over his shoulder and swung him around in a neat circle, making the young boy chucked in delight.  

"I'm big enough!" Kyle protested. "Pa's been teaching me how to cut." 

"I'll bet," Billy grinned but also knew something else too. "But I'm pretty sure Chris will tan your hide if he found you doing it without him around. You're a might too little be playing with knives without supervision." At that he ruffled Kyle's hair even as the boy was gave him a rather guilty look. It was an expression Billy could not resist and added a moment later. "But if you give me that knife, I'm sure we can work something out." 

Kyle brightened immediately and Billy wondered if he was ever that young and was he ever so foolish? Then again, he was the eight-year-old, who challenged a professional gambler to a game of Go Fish, and supposed he should not be throwing stones through his glass house.  

"So where's Mike?" Billy asked as they continued the journey up the boardwalk.  

"He's gone to play with Ellie Rose, Tommy and Peter." Kyle frowned. "He said me and Sarah was too little to play with them."  

If he knew his younger brother at all, this usually meant they were getting into some kind of trouble they could not risk a six year old knowing in case something went wrong, Billy thought inwardly. They reached the front door leading to the Clarion News which still remained in the same place, in the same building where he grew up in and where Chris and Mary Larabee had raised their family. Kyle did not wait for him as the young boy saw home and immediately bounded through the front door of the Clarion's Office. 

"Kyle Larabee," Mary's voice sang through the door as Billy stepped into the familiar front office that he had known most of his life. "You better have a good reason for running in like this, what did I tell..."

"Look whose home ma!" Kyle cried out, certain his announcement would wash away all sins.

"Billy!" Mary Larabee rose from behind her desk, closely followed by his young sister Sarah. Mary never seemed to change as she crossed the floor towards her first born, embracing him warmly as only a mother could. She was still a handsome woman at the age of forty-two, with no signs of letting time catch up with her at any time soon. 

"You weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow," Mary gushed happily as she pulled away from her son after that heartfelt embrace. Each time she saw him, he seemed to grow taller and older as if time was an hourglass draining so by so fast she had no idea when the moments were shifting for the blur before her. 

"I thought I'd surprise you." He grinned and hugged his mother again, unable to believe how smelling her rose water perfume in his lungs could make him feel so safe and secure again, even as full grown man.  

"Well I'm not complaining," Mary laughed.  

"Hi there Sarah." Billy stepped past her and took close stock of the little girl that was staring shyly at him. She was not more than three and her memory for faces must have been vague, especially one she had last seen six months ago, an eternity of time for a child her age. She was a picture. If the Larabee boys took after their father, then Sarah was all Mary. With the same flaxen hair and doe colored eyes, she seemed more like a fairy child than one of flesh and blood. 

She blushed at him and immediately took cover behind Mary's long skirt. Mary shrugged her shoulders and picked up her youngest, who immediately buried her face in the crook of her mother's arm and stole quick glances at him at brief intervals. 

"She's a little shy."  Mary said kissing Sarah on the cheek.

Suddenly the door swung open and the one person Billy wanted to see almost as much as his family breezed into the office, chattering wildly without pause. "Mary, I'm sure something is going on with those supposed prospectors, I don't think they're carrying anything that looks remotely like mining equipment." 

Lilith King paused in mid step as she saw Billy and her words died in her throat as a bright smile replaced her astonished look. She wore her hair loose because no matter how much she tried to style it ornately as women of the day tended to do, it always seemed to look freshly tousled until she gave up altogether and wore it as it ought to be worn, unencumbered by pins and ribbons. Her electric colored eyes seemed to sparkle upon seeing him and that radiant gaze had the power to melt him where he stood. Billy was not sure who took the first step but in a tangle of arms, he swept her into his arms and greeted her with a warm, affectionate kiss. 

"Yuck!" Billy heard Kyle cry out in the background as he kissed Lilith and wondered how it was it felt like only yesterday since he had last seen her.  

"Kyle," Mary gave her young son a stern look but could not feel at all annoyed when she saw the intensity of the reunion between her oldest and his soon to be wife.  

"You weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow." Lilith spoke when they had finally parted. "You said in your letter the 15th, tomorrow is the 15th." She insisted. 

"Well I can leave," he teased. "Unless you know of some other poor guy who wants to marry you."

"I know lots," Lilith said feigning mock indifference when they both knew perfectly well how they felt about each other and their coming marriage. "But if you're not going to show then I think I could just be happy being the Clarion's star reporter." 

"But you're the _only_ reporter." Billy said with a smirk and earned a sharp poke in the gut in retaliation. 

"Okay you two," Mary finally broke in, rolling her eyes in weariness at watching the duo in their verbal jousting. It seemed strangely familiar somehow. "I think the paper can wait while I make us all some lunch."

"Make pie ma!" Kyle supported her suggestion most enthusiastically. 

"I could eat," Billy threw Lilith a sly look. "If it wasn't for the food, I wouldn't have any reason to come back at all."

 "You just wait...." Lilith glared at him through narrowed eyes. 

Mary shook her head as the duo started again and found herself thinking once more.

 _Definitely_   _familiar_.

* * *

'This is not a good idea," Elena Rose Wilmington declared. She had good reason to be concerned seeing the clear contents of the beaker change into a sickly shade of yellow, just before smoke of the same color began billowing out past the rim. The foul smelling cloud whose stench resembled that of rotten eggs quickly coming to a stop at the ceiling and spreading outwards to fill the room with its stomach turning odor.

Elena Rose could always tell whenever Mike Larabee was going to get her into a whole heap of trouble and this time was proving to be no exception. Although she was six months older than him and approaching almost twelve years of age, Elena Rose always noticed that she always seemed to go along with whatever hair brained scheme he conjured up in his mind. Inwardly, she knew she ought to be doing what other girls her age were doing, getting ready for the inevitable arrival of puberty and all the angst with it. Elena found it discerning to see the change taking place as the baby fat started to bleed out of her cheeks and the tanned skin that always set her apart from the pretty white girls, with the exception of Samantha Tanner, now made her look exotic rather than different.  

However, a part of her refused to give up her childhood just yet, just as she steadfastly refused to give up the friends she shared it with. 

"Trust me, this will work." Thomas Josiah Jackson, or Tommy as he was known, assured the older girl as he continued to add a yellow powder to the mix. "I seen my pa do this a hundred times!" Tommy was not quite nine years old but he was already nearly as tall as Mike. While his looks came mostly from his mother, Tommy's intellect though sometimes flawed as Elena was suspecting this occasion was about to prove, was formidable enough. He had inherited his father's sharp mind while it was not an interest in healing that inspired him but rather a passion for the sciences of the physical world, the same devotion could be said of the younger Jackson as the senior. 

The devotion which was terribly apparent as the young boy continued to make his potion, encouraged by the audience of his best friends who were gathered around the big workbench that served as the make shift apothecary where Nathan Jackson created some of his more exotic medicinal concoctions. 

"Doctor Jackson has reason to make stuff to stink out the school house?" Michael Larabee looked at the would be chemist who had swore empathetically, he knew just the perfect brew to fill up the school house so nothing would remove the stench for a week and thus keep the establishment close. At the time, it seemed like such a good idea. Summer was approaching and the last few days of school was a torture he could do with out, which was why he had deliberated upon this plan to save them from its ministrations so they could get an early start to their vacation. It had been for a noble cause and Michael or Mike as he preferred to be called by everyone save his father, who felt it worthy of the undertaking. 

Just like his father, the eyes were the most telling thing about the oldest Larabee child although he was considered by most to be the middle child, having been supplanted of that position by his brother Billy whom he loved and could never imagine as anything else but kin. Deep intense eyes that seemed to cut through anything they gazed upon, he had the same dark gold hair and the mannerism that made him the undisputed leader of among his childhood companions when they were all gathered in one place. Three of their number was missing but then knowing, Sam, Penny and Adam, they were probably off somewhere engaged in an undertaking almost as ambitious as the one he inspired Tommy to take up. 

"No," Tommy retorted giving him a look, catching the sarcasm in Mike's voice. "He's made other stuff just like this, except it didn't stink and probably wouldn't smoke either." 

"We're gonna get caught." Peter Standish remarked with atypical skepticism and pessimism. Unlike his twin sister Penny who was the more flamboyant of the two in her desire to become a famous actress, Peter was more interested in building things. Although the very notion of using his hands for such an endeavor had almost given his father a stroke, the senior Mr Standish had eventually resigned himself to the fact he had raised not a gambler, but rather an inventor. It was hard not to be impressed with Peter with his penchant for ideas that bore the mark of potential genius upon it.  

"We should have gone with my idea." He repeated himself for the umpteenth time and seemed to shorten the interval of reminding them even more since Tommy's concoction had started to take on a life of its own. 

"I am not at any point in time, going searching for termites to infest the school." Elena Rose said firmly staring at him distastefully with her hands on her hips in definitive objection to the idea. "Knowing our luck it probably wouldn't do any good until the summer was over and then collapse the school in winter so we'd have to sit outside in the cold to do our lessons." 

The boys exchanged a look before Peter remarked. "So how is this a bad thing?" 

"I am not collecting bugs!" Elena Rose insisted and garnered a look from all males that said one thing and one thing only.

_Girls!_

"I'm telling you it would work! That building is so old, all we got to do is put in the some of the beams and its' done!" Peter continued to plead his case and seemed even more determined now that the signs of eminent disaster was looming so closely. 

"Look I think we have a problem." Mike said watching the rising cloud with anxiety as the thickening fog was forced back down by the obstruction of the ceiling to spread across the rest of the room. He could start to feel the noxious fumes stinging his eyes, not to mention the overpowering smell that was gagging. "Why is it smoking like that?" The leader of the quartet asked with an expression on his face that was very much his father if anyone had taken the time to notice. 

"Oh that's just the gunpowder." Tommy remarked relatively unconcerned, more focussed on his observation regarding the progress of the experiment before him rather than the end results. 

"Gun powder?" The other three said in unison.  

"Yeah gives it a little kick." The young chemist smiled triumphantly.  

"A little kick!" Mike said aghast and turned his eyes back to the beaker whose clear glass walls were darkening from the heat of the Bunsen burner upon which it was perched. The liquid inside was not only billowing thicker clouds of smoke but was also starting to bubble dangerously. Swearing under his breath because he knew what was coming, he looked at his younger companions and acted quickly.

"Tommy turn down that fire!" He barked loudly before turning to Elena Rose and Peter, "the rest of you, out of here now!" 

"What’s wrong?" Elena questioned, seeing the fear in his eyes.  

"Don’t argue," Mike retorted. "Just go!" 

"Hey," Peter was still staring at the beaker frothing its liquid into the fire and doing a better job of extinguishing the flame then Tommy’s attempt to turn off the gas that was feeding the blue heat beneath it. "I think its going to…."

He never quite got a chance to answer because the beaker chose that moment to explode, sending glass and hot liquid in all directions. The sound of glass cracking had made Mike react instantly, pulling his friend out of the line of fire as projectiles both solid and liquid sprayed outward. Peter stumbled back, lost his footing and fell into Mike, downing them both. Elena Rose made a wild attempt to stop his descent and in turn was pulled to the floor with the weight of two boys attempting to use her in support. They both landed on her. In the meantime, Tommy Jackson was crouched beneath the desk, having dived there for safety after the minor explosion.

The destruction of the beaker allowed its content to spill over the flame and extinguish it but not without first igniting the wet particles of gunpowder. Some of the spray had touched his clothes and though he had not been cut by glass, could feel pin pricks of scalding pain where the liquid had seeped through his clothes. Fortunately, he incurred no other greater injury than that.

"Get…off….me!" Elena Rose demanded with indignant rage as the three children shook themselves out of the stupor they were in following their failed endeavor.  

Peter moved off first because he was pining Mike down by his legs and quickly assessed by the damage and the state of the room they were not going to be able to hide this with any success. 

"You okay?" Mike turned to Elena Rose immediately, watching the lovely young girl toss strands out of her face the way he liked watching her do, when she was not looking. Each time he did that, his heart seemed to pound louder in his chest and it felt as if he could not breathe. Even though he was eleven years old, Mike knew without doubt that some day Elena Rose would be his wife. He knew that as certainly as the sun came up in the morning and as surely as the sun set at night. Of course, she did not know that yet but he was sure, it would come to her one of these days.

He just had to be patient.

"I’m fine." Elena Rose retorted, completely unhappy with the situation once she sighted the mess Peter was surveying with growing dismay. "Before my mom sends me to my room for all time because of this stupid idea of yours, do you have any thoughts on how we’re going to explain this?" 

"We’re so dead." Peter added his own assessment of their situation. "I’ll never see the light of day again." 

"What are you two worried about?" Mike grumbled. "You don’t have Chris Larabee for you dad." 

"You know…." Tommy emerged from under the table and examined the wreckage of his experiment. "Maybe the gunpowder wasn’t such a good idea."

"That’s it!" Mike growled and took a step towards him, with clear menace in his eyes. However, the rendering was cut short by an even angrier exclamation when the door to the workroom swung open and Nathan Jackson's voice sounded through the room.

"What the hell is going on down here?" The doctor demanded taking a step into the room and then sniffing the air to remark. "What's that stink?" 

* * *

Technically, it was still spring if one wanted to get terribly specific about dates and seasons. However, late spring in the Territory was almost as good as early summer to all those creatures, who lived within its region, be they human or not. On this occasion, a quartet of coyote cubs newly grown strong enough to leave the den, were making their latest excursion out of their cave to explore the larger world beyond it. Although the markings of  _canis_ _ lantrans_ was evident in every shade of tan on their pelts, at the moment the cubs did not at all look like their fearsome adult counterpart. If anything, they looked like puppies, with big feet and round furry bodies.  

They played the games of the pack, spoke a language so old and unfathomable to men that only creatures of the land and pure wild instinct could only decipher it. Had they been older like the she coyote who bore them and was presently making the hunt to bring home sustenance, they would have been able to see the colors of warm bodies laying in wait, watching them with delight not so different from their own childish play. 

The three human children watching from a safe distance behind a collection and shrubbery and rocks, did not share similar markings. If anything, each was worlds a part. The leader of the trio, a young girl of ten with long jet hair always worn loose under an old beaten hat, a prized possession because it was one owned by her father, watched the proceedings with cobalt colored eyes. Through years of teaching and listening from two very intelligent parents in their own different fields, she was product of their union in every way.  

"Sam, are you sure this is safe?" Her companion, a stark contrast in resemblance asked with a hushed voice. Deep emerald eyes stared with a mixture and fear and fascination at the play of the creatures before them. Where the former was everything untamed and wild, she was everything that was delicate and precious. She was the kind of child that captured attention wherever she went and always seemed comfortable in Sunday clothes where other children would be struggling to escape them. Biting her full lips with concern as she continued to enjoy the moment, Penelope Maude Standish, brushed a strand of dark gold hair from her face as she waited for one of her best friends in the world.  

"What if their mom comes back?" The last member of the triumvirate inquired. He was a little younger than the two girls but still stood shoulder to shoulder with Sam who had inherited her parent's bone structure. Although he was the son of the sheriff, he did not at all look like his father nor for that matter wished to be like his father whom he adored. Named Adam because to honour a child lost in the distant past, his most notable features were a pair of steel rimmed glasses he always held poised over an open book. Kids in school liked to call him names, four eyes being most notable even though they risked being trashed properly by Sam or Mike Larabee which ever came first, Adam did not really mind living in books. However, the two girls with him and the other four friends who were absent were the only reason why he might venture out from the world of the fictional into the one  of reality. 

"Don't worry," Sam frowned giving them both a look. "I've been watching them for the last two days now, she always comes back just before dark." 

"What if she comes back early?" Penelope or Penny as she loathed being called by everyone except her father asked, defying Sam to answer that question. While she could not deny seeing the animals was quite something, she was also afraid. Once again, she asked herself how Sam always seemed to talk her into these crazy stunts. She still remembered the fright they got when Sam convinced her to climb up this tree to see some dumb bird's nest only to have the mother bird come back and almost peck her eyes out in their rapid attempt to reach the ground. Adam had lost another pair of glasses after that particular adventure. 

However if truth be know, Penny had this oddest feeling even when she was a glamorous actress treading the boards in the far away future, Sam would still be able to drag her to the woods on one of her crazed ideas for adventure. 

"She will if you two don't stop jabbering." Sam huffed, wondering how she could be saddled with two such nervous friends. "I thought you'd want to see this?" 

"I do," Adam pushed his glasses further up his nose. "I just don't want to become supper." 

"You won't," Sam said impatiently. "Besides, she'll only eat one of us." 

"It's not going to be me." Penny declared, "I am going to be an actress some day, like Lily Langtry so I don't plan on getting killed any time soon." She said this with the voice of true lady, holding her chin up as she spoke. 

"Neither do I," Adam agreed in return. "I'm going to be the world's greatest writer so nothing better happen to me. You're the only one who wants to stay out here in the woods Sam. If she eats you, it won't be that much of a loss." 

"The next time someone calls you Four Eyes," Sam gave him a look. "I'm not going to come to your rescue." 

"If you showed me how to use that sling of yours, I wouldn't need your help." Adam retorted just as defiantly.

"The last time I showed you how to use my sling, you broke one of the church windows!" Sam said exasperated remembering how they had been forced to explain to Uncle Josiah what they had been doing. Worse yet after explaining to Josiah what they had done, they had to tell their parents.  

Now that was  _real_  punishment. 

"It wasn't my fault," Adam cried out. "My hand slipped. I'll do better this time, I promise." 

Sam frowned, not liking the idea of giving Adam such a dangerous weapon. She loved him like she loved Penny but he was just no good with anything physical. His world was one of books and stories and many was the night she and all the others would listen to him tell the tales he sometimes made up or read from a book. Perhaps it was knowing there was so many worlds going on inside his head that made the others want to protect him. Of course, it was hard for him too. Wearing glasses was bad enough but the oldest son of the sheriff as well as near sighted made him an easy target for bullies. If it wasn't for her or Mike, Sam was sure he'd be getting beat up a lot more than he was now. 

"Okay," Sam finally conceded. "But this time we do it at the ranch," she declared. "That way nothing is gonna get broke." 

"Hey," Penny suddenly spoke up. "Where did they go?" 

"Where did what go?" Sam asked distractedly. 

"The cubs."  

Her eyes snapped front away from Adam and she saw that the cubs were indeed gone and there was only one place they could have disappeared to; inside the cave because they could sense the return of their mother and were waiting to be fed. 

"Oh no!" Sam exclaimed and quickly got to her feet. "We have to go!"  

"Why?"  

A low growl behind them ended that question for Penny far more efficiently than Sam was capable of giving answer. The three children spun around and saw a rather irate she coyote bearing her inch long teeth with attack in her yellow eyes.  

"Run!" She shouted at Penny and Adam who needed no more encouragement than that as they made a mad dash towards safety. They had been watching the proceedings from a rather sharp hill and their descent was nowhere as steady as their initial trip up as they skidded down the soft earth, pulling dead leaves and whatever else had accumulated on the surface as they ploughed towards the ground. It had rained a last night so the ground was still wet and as they slid down, creating a small avalanche of debris and mud as they progressed, the she coyote quickly felt into the pursuit. 

"She's still behind us!" Penny screamed as they reached the foot of the hill and saw the less than ceremonious descent had given them a few seconds lead time but not much.  

"Follow me!" Sam shouted almost as panicked as she broke through the underbrush, knowing exactly where she was going and hoping it was enough to convince the coyote from maintaining the chase. Behind her, she could hear Penny and Adam following her closely, their fear allowing them to keep up for once while even more distant behind her, the soft pads against dry grass told her how quickly the predator behind them was gaining. 

It was almost heaven sent when the sound of water running finally broke through the pounding of their terrified hearts and the creek came into sight. Seeing the waterway gave them a burst of speed and running faster than they had ever run before, they kept running until they ran out of land and plunged into the welcome waters of the considerably deep creek. The three made a loud splash as they hit the surface, creating large ripples in water as they disappeared beneath its depths for a split second before the natural instinct to begin kicking brought them back to top. 

Upon breaking the surface of the water, they saw the coyote staring at them from the water's edge, trying to decide whether they were worth the effort to make an attempt to pursue into the water. After a few minutes, the creature decided against it and retreated into the scrub once again, unhappy about leaving her cubs unprotected for any length of time. When the body of tan disappeared into the greenery, all three children let out a sigh of relief. 

"Is everyone okay?" Sam asked, looking at her friends who had yet to have spoken.  

"I think I lost my glasses." Adam complained and sure enough as Sam and Penny looked at his squinting face, the sight of those familiar steel rimmed glasses were nowhere to be seen. 

"Can you still see?" Penny inquired with concern. The trio were not quite confident enough to stray out of the water just yet so Sam responded by diving into the depths once again, trying to find the glasses in question through the murky water. 

"I think so," Adam replied, even though she was a blur in front of him. "My pa's gonna be so mad at me losing another pair." The boy said unhappily. 

"Tell me about it," Penny could sympathize, when she thought what state she would be in when she went home. "At least this time when I go home in a mess, I'll be a clean mess." 

* * *

"Michael Vin Larabee, what on earth were you thinking?" Mary Larabee demanded as she stared at her son who utterly reeked of god only knows what he had been playing with when he and his friends had blown up Nathan's laboratory. "You could have gotten yourself killed! Don't you know how dangerous Nathan's chemicals can be and gun powder?" The editor of the Clarion News stared at her second born, hands on her hip as she frowned in disapproval. 

"Oh come on ma," Billy who had been in the kitchen as Mike got his dressing down. "No one got hurt and I'm sure how badly he stinks is lesson enough." Just as it had been when they were children, the urge to protect his younger brother came naturally and Billy knew with just enough pressure, he could persuade his mother to let the matter rest without putting Mike through any further ordeal. At the corner of the door that led to the rest of the house, he could see two sets of anxious eyes peering at the proceedings. Kyle knew well enough to stay out of his mother's way when she was angry and little Sarah was warned away just by Mary's voice. 

Billy threw a little wink at Mike as he made that entreaty. "Besides, I don't want my homecoming to be spoiled by you being mad at Mikey." He smiled sweetly at his younger brother, seeing him bristled at being called by what Mike termed to be a 'baby name'. 

"I seemed to be outnumbered." Mary gave them both a look.

Suddenly, Chris Larabee's voice responded. "I wouldn't say that exactly." 

Billy and Mike both stared at their father who was leaning by the door way where his younger children had been taking refuge, arms folded with an expression that was a cross between amusement and smug.  

Billy looked at Mike, "you're on your own."

* * *

Sam had a plan.

It was a good plan. There was a tree next to her bedroom window and the deduction in her mind was that if she could just make it up there without anyone noticing, she might just get away with having to explain why she was in the state of wet she was currently in. She saw no signs of her father anywhere because when it came to stealthy approaches, she was good but he was a  _whole_  lot better. Vin Tanner had this infuriating ability to spot everything that went on in the Lucky 7 ranch even though he appeared nowhere in the vicinity when it was taking place. Mom was easy to get around, mostly because she would be in the house tending patients as she was likely to do at this time of the day.  

However, the danger was  _still_  her father.  

At this time of day, he would be just about finished with the horses and might be on his way to the house, if not already there. Sam knew she could not afford to waste a lot of time as she quickly scaled up the thick branches of the tree. After so many years, she was nearly on intimate knowledge with each limb of the large elm tree that the house was built next to after the original shack had been burnt in a fire or something.  

It did not take long for her reach the top. Sam paused long enough to enjoy a brief view of the Lucky 7 ranch which always seemed like the entire world until she stepped past the main gates and viewed the one her father showed her almost from the day she was born. She took a breath of air and confessed to enjoying the day, despite its questionable outcome. Climbing through the windowsill, she stepped onto the floor of her bedroom with a great deal of satisfaction at her success until she heard a slow languid drawl behind her. 

"Now I know I built a perfectly good door for you and your ma so I'm wondering why you're climbing up a tree to get into the house." 

Sam turned around to see her father, waiting patiently for her as he sat down on her bed. "Did I even have a chance of getting past you daddy?" 

"No," Vin said with a smile. "Not really." 

"I will one day you know," she returned, exuding that one bit of defiance before she had to explain herself. 

"We'll see," the once tracker casting his daughter and affectionate look even though she was  _still_  in trouble. "Now quit stalling and start talking." 

* * *

"What in God's name is that awful stench?" Ezra Standish asked as he walked through his front door and was confronted with a smell that had no words.  

"Ezra is that you?" Julia's voice sang out with more than just a hint of annoyance. The once gambler, now supposedly honest business man knew without a doubt only his children could inspire so much ire in his wife and wondered what mischief they had gotten into this time. Despite the fact parental obligation would make it necessary for him to punish them, Ezra could not deny he enjoyed his children immensely. He thought gambling was unpredictable and exciting. However, upon the arrival of his twins, Ezra realized he had not the slightest concept of the word. 

"Daddy, it wasn't my fault!" Penny came running out of the main parlor of the house wrapped in a towel, her hair was damp across her face, her clothes were dripping wet and yet it was not from her that the terrible smell was emanating. 

"What's not your fault my darling girl?" He asked as she came to a stop in front of him with that pout on her face which he was never able to resist or punish even when she had committed some transgression that clearly warranted the action. 

"That I got chased by that coyote." 

"Coyote?" Ezra's eyes widened and lowered himself to his knees so that he could see for himself she was not hurt by a closer observation. "Pray tell when did you come across such a beast?" 

"When we were spying on her babies." Penny answered, unable to lie to her father. He was too good at seeing through it and besides, they had  _no_  secrets from each other. "We only wanted to look." 

Ezra did not need to hear more. "Shall I guess that you were with young Samantha when you chose to undertake this endeavor?" 

Her gaze drop guiltily to the rug before her and more or less answered his question. Sam was Vin child to the core and his daughter like him was guilty of craving adventure. How could he be angry at them for that? Still, at this moment he was more interested in learning the origin of that nauseating stench filling his house. "What is that odor?" 

"That's Peter." Penny declared, "he, Mike, Tommy and Elena Rose blew up Uncle Nathan's lab!" 

"I did not!" Peter shouted, hearing enough of their conversation from the kitchen when his mother was presently trying to scrub the stomach turning stench of sulfur dioxide from his skin and in turn remove its blight from her happy home. "It was Tommy who blew up the lab! I wanted them to use termites because it would have eaten up the wood in the school house in no time." 

Ezra was in mid smirk at that statement when suddenly he heard Julia repeat herself. "Ezra Standish, I REALLY THINK YOU NEED TO TALK TO YOUR CHILDREN!" 

"I suppose I could not convince you to forget you saw me run out of the house?" Ezra threw Penny a pleading look.

"Sorry daddy," Penny shrugged. "I’m in enough trouble as it is." 

"Unfortunately," Ezra let out a sigh as he went to assume his paternal responsibilities. "That seems to be the usual state of affairs for those born with the Standish name." 

* * *

Elena Rose learnt very early on in life that it was good to have a second language.  

In fact, by the time she was five years old, she was able to identify all the expletives her mother would often use whenever she was angry even though Elena Rose confessed to hearing none of it when in the presence of Inez Wilmington. This situation was no exception as evidenced when she sat in a tub not unlike the one that Peter Standish was presently enduring, hearing a litany of expletives coming from her mother’s lips in response to Inez’s outrage at her coming home smelling like a basket of rotten eggs.  

Of course, it did not help that her father, former rogue, now respectable rancher Buck Wilmington had found the entire situation exceedingly amusing even though he had lifted nary a finger to prevent Inez from scolding her daughter for her behavior, did nothing to aid in her punishment either. Elena Rose did not think it would be long after she had been sent to bed, usually without supper for such a crime, before her father would come sneaking in with something he had kept hidden just for her. 

Despite hearing her mother’s annoyance as Inez washed her hair, Elena Rose could not help but look forward to those occasions when her father would sneak into her room and make her feel better, usually bringing cake. He was never very good at being the disciplinarian, Elena Rose decided and his manner seemed very reminiscent of Mike and the boys she spent her childhood with, even though her father was supposed to be a grown up.  

"Now my little Rose," Inez said after a while, finally calming down long enough to take stock of the situation and remembering all those foolish things she had done as a child. "Try not to do this again?"  

Inez softened considerably as she was suddenly beset with images of a helpless babe that was now this young girl poised to becoming a woman. Where had the time gone? "And one other thing."  

"Yes mama?" Elena Rose cast her an apologetic look because nothing made her feel more like Inez's daughter then being referred to as her mother's little rose.  

Inez looked at her with a smile. "What would you like your father to sneak in to you in tonight?"


	3. Weekends

Chris Larabee woke up when he felt a slight shift in the sheets next to him.  

While he could be forgiven if he thought it was his wife Mary next to him, the powerful glare of sunshine through the bedroom window told him that it was well past the time that Mary would find acceptable to remain in bed. Although his wife slept in with him on most weekdays, such an indulgence did not lend itself well when the day in question was a Saturday. With two boys who were almost always ravenous, thundering through the house as they prepared to launch themselves into the enjoyment of a day where they were not required anywhere except home at supper, Mary preferred to get an early start preparing breakfast and see them on their way. 

As Chris blinked the sleep out of his eyes, he could hear the voices downstairs in the kitchen. Mary was issuing orders to a trio since Billy was home too and Chris could just picture the scene as Mike and Kyle set the table while Billy chopped wood and kept Mary's stove burning. His wife would love every minute of it as she cooked the meal as she watched her sons bantering with each other. Billy would be Mike by calling him Mikey, Mike would be pulling down that little cap that Kyle was never without around his ears before the youngest would cry out at Mary, asking her to make Mike stop it. It was chaos of the best kind and Chris suddenly felt the urge to be apart of all of it. 

He had started to climb out of bed when he remembered the slight sounds of movement he had felt earlier that had woken him up to begin with. There was no mystery as to who it could be for he had only to look up and see her sitting cross-legged, staring at him in her night dress, while clutching that faded rag doll he had bought her the day she was born. Sarah looked at him and smiled blond strands over much of her face as she looked at her father with her mother's eyes. 

While most women might have some objection to their daughter being named after her predecessor, Mary was nowhere that insecure and neither was he. Naming their daughter Sarah was a way to honor someone who had passed from this world that was deeply loved and mourned still to some extent. It was the same courtesy that Chris had allowed Mary previously when they had named their youngest boy, Kyle Stephen Larabee.  

"Morning Sarah." He greeted the sight that always had the power to melt his heart whenever he gazed upon his small daughter. What was it with daughters that brought out the very best of sentimentality in some men? While he loved  _all_  his children equally, Chris often found the need to protect Sarah just a little more than the others. Was it because she was the youngest or because at this moment, she seemed so beautifully fragile that delicate handling was required at all times. Perhaps it was because when he looked at his little Sarah, he saw Mary in every strand of gold hair and in every speck of those dove like eyes.  

"Good morning daddy." She answered in her small voice, being careful to pronounce each word carefully because speech was just as new to her as everything else in world was to a three-year-old. 

"Why aren't you downstairs with your mother?" Chris asked as he propped his head on his arm and took a moment with his youngest who was still staring at him as if he were the most mesmerizing thing in the world. 

"Cause I'm here." She answered firmly with a definite nod. 

 _Well you can't argue with that_ , Chris thought inwardly.  

"How about we go get some breakfast?" He asked and saw her nod again, tossing blond strands as she did so. Sarah did not speak much even though every now and then a full sentence would emerge and then she would rabbit on about things that made no sense to anyone but another child. When Nathan brought little Rebecca to the house, the two little girls who were roughly the same age would sit on the porch with their dolls and communicate in a language that was utterly endearing to anyone watching it even if they had no idea what was being said. 

Chris reached for his pants on the chair and pulled them on under the covers where he got discreetly dressed as Sarah continued to watch him with fascination. She had taken up this habit for some weeks now and like all other phases his children seemed to go through, Chris knew this one would pass in time. With a little smile, Chris remembered both Mike and Kyle going through this stage in their toddler years and with a little sliver of pain that still felt as fresh as the day it had been first inflicted upon his heart, Chris recalled the same behavior from Adam. 

Suddenly, footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs after he had climbed out of bed and slipped on his boots. Once he had pulled them on, Chris stood up and offered little Sarah a smile before reaching down to pick her up. She immediately wrapped one arm around his neck and rested her blond head against his shoulder. Chris could smell the faint hint of talcum powder and always seemed to associate its lavender scent with his young daughter and once again felt the heart in his chest turned to warm goo. 

 _What was it with daughters?_  

"Hey pa!" Mike called out, pausing at the top of the stairs when he did so. "Breakfast is ready." 

"I'm coming." Chris announced himself by stepping out of the bedroom and approaching his son who had lingered behind to join his father on the journey down to breakfast. Chris could hear the cackling of fresh eggs cooking and the thick aroma of bacon sizzling above a pan that immediately caused his stomach leap up in anticipation of the meal. 

"Hey Sarah." Mike greeted his sister in his father's arm. Like his father, Mike had a soft spot for his baby sister who was never as much trouble as Kyle.  

"Good morning Mikey." She responded with the same radiant smile. 

Chris bit his lip seeing the chagrin on his son's face at the mention of that name. "Its Mike, Sarah." Mike said carefully, hoping it would sink in. 

"Mikey!" She repeated with a grin and brought an involuntary smile to Chris' face. 

"Give it up." Chris instructed. "Think of this way, you could be called Junior."  

Mike winced in disgust at that possibility. "Oh that is bad." He agreed. "You're lucky grandpa just decided to call you Christopher." 

"Yeah," Chris frowned. "Real lucky." 

* * *

The nature of horse ranching made it impossible for Vin Tanner to sleep in. He was always the first one up in the mornings, tending to the horses during the small hours of dawn while his wife and daughter slept. Later that morning, Chris and Buck would turn up and the three would begin the business of running the ranch as they had done for more than a decade. It was hard for Vin to imagine that so much time had passed since they had first arrived in Four Corners. All of them, seven misfits with no real place to go and then view this world that had been created through that friendship. 

As he made his way to the house he and the seven had built shortly after his marriage to Alex, he could smell breakfast in the air and immediately hasten his pace to the back door. The house that remained in place of the shack Chris Larabee had once called home was a far cry from that small dwelling. With Josiah's help, Vin had built a pretty decent house with enough rooms to accommodate himself and Alex, not to mention Sam when she was born and the child that was now slumbering in Alex's womb waiting to emerge any time during the next month.  

There was a slight breeze in the air as he approached the house and he could see the little sign that read 'doctor' above one of the doors at the far end of the house swinging lightly. While Alex still had her clinic in town, she still saw a few patients who chose to come in to see her after hours while she was at home. Upon moving into the tertiary stages of pregnancy, Alex was spending more and more time utilizing the office here and upon the birth of new baby, would probably consult from this location as she had done when Samantha was born. 

Vin had thought the birth of a daughter would be a complete mystery to him since it was easy to know what to do with a boy. You taught a son to hunt and track and all those things that you had inside your head but a girl? A girl was something unknown. Fortunately, Sam had never been that. She hunted with him and tracked with him and every bit of knowledge he had accumulated over his life was something she eagerly absorbed. He realised that perhaps she was not as lady like as she ought to have been but then Alex said that there would be a time when she would start paying attention to that sort of thing and now was not the time to worry about it. 

Vin stepped into the backdoor and saw Alex by the stove, lifting a pot of hot coffee off the burner only to be intercepted by Sam who took it from her.

 "I'll get it mom." Sam replied, aware that her mother's delicate condition needed her to be on her toes and offering help when it was needed. Of course, you couldn't get too pushy with mom about taking care of her health. For a doctor, Sam had decided that her mother was decidedly headstrong and had she made mention of it to her father, would have been surprised when he agreed with her on that assertion.  

"Thanks sweetheart." Alex smiled at her daughter and the exchange made Vin let out a soft sigh of affection. 

"How are my girls this morning?" Vin called out, announcing his arrival. 

"Hey cowboy." Alex gave him a little smile as they met half way across the room in a gentle kiss before Vin looked down at Alex's swollen belly and patted it gently. "How's the baby doing?" 

"We're both fine for the moment." Alex replied glancing at stomach and wishing it would be over tomorrow because pregnancy was just so exhausting. Not that she was anything but delighted at the new arrival to her family. She remember what a joy Sam had been and still was for that matter, to know that she would like to enjoy that experience again. Seeing how close Sam and Vin were convinced Alex that it was time to expand their family. 

"Want some coffee daddy?" Sam asked as she prepared to set the coffeepot down on the table, smiling happily because seeing the affection between her parents always made the young girl feel warm inside.  

"Sure darling," Vin replied as he sat at the head of the table and watched his wife and daughter settle down to join him in the meal soon after. They engaged in the idle talk that was always spoken around the table because Vin had always wanted to be apart of a family and when he finally had one of his own was determined that they shared occasions like this. No matter where he was whenever he was in town, Vin always made sure that he ended up at the head of this table at some point during the day. It was an action that was shared by Alex who could be just as preoccupied with her work although with Sam's arrival, she had managed to divide her time equally between her role as doctor and mother. 

"Mom." Sam spoke. "Did you know you always wanted to be a doctor?" 

The question took both parents by surprise. 

Alex and Vin instinctively exchanged glances, which inquired of each other what had brought this on. Vin gave Alex a smug look, which said without a word having to be uttered, that this one was all hers. Alex frowned remembering that same expression on his face when the subject regarding the birds and the bees had come up. It was an expression that lasted about as long as it took for him to bolt out the door and head for the town  _and_  the saloon.  

"Well yes," Alex answered honestly because there was no shame in it. She had wanted to be a doctor like her father as long as she could remember. The power to heal had been a gift that Alex had wanted all her life and because she adored William Styles so much that she wanted to be apart of his world. A little pang of sorrow surfaced as she looked at Sam and wished her father had known his grand daughter. They were so much alike. 

"Why you asking Sammie?" Vin asked. He was the only one who called her that.

"Well Penny wants to be an actress, Adam wants to write, Peter wants to build things and Tommy just wants to blow them up, I don't what I want to do." She shrugged her shoulders as if this was a very serious subject. "I mean I know I want to learn stuff but I don't want be inside all the time. I want to be like Columbus and see the world." 

Now it was Alex's turn to look at Vin. 

"Sammie," Vin cleared his throat, wondering what to say to a child. In truth, most girls just grew up and got married but Sam was too much like her mother to settle for just that. "You got a couple of years before you need to decide what you want to be when you grow up."  

 _Thank God_ , Vin thought to himself. 

"If you say so," Sam didn't seem very convinced and quickly finished her breakfast before announcing to her parents. "Me and the others are going up to the creek today." She volunteered as she collected her things that were waiting for her on the wooden chair. Within seconds she had kissed them both on the cheek and was heading out the door.  

There was a length of silence following her departure between husband and wife when they both looked at each other and declared at the same time. "What the hell was that about?" 

"Columbus?" Alex groaned. "My daughter wants to be Columbus." 

"How come you're surprised?" Vin stared at her. "You went roaming around the world with your dad. She gets it from you." He pointed out with a little grin. 

"Me?" Alex exclaimed in protest. "She doesn't get it from me! She gets it from you! You're the one who takes her camping and fishing and god knows only what else. I mean the child went to find coyotes yesterday! I sure as hell know she doesn't get it from me. I don't go looking for trouble." Alex said with a hint of haughtiness to her voice.

 "I only got one thing to say." Vin looked at her with a knowing smirk, folding his arms as he prepared to deliver his masterstroke in this little discussion.

 "What?" Alex retorted, defying him to say anything to prove otherwise.

"Been to Denver lately?" He asked, wearing a smug grin as he did so. 

Alex narrowed her eyes and glared at him. "Oh shut up."

* * *

"Come on Penny!" Peter hollered after his sister as he hurried to the dining room to get breakfast. "We're gonna be late!"

Peter frowned as Penny yelled back that she was going to be just a few more minutes. He wanted to get going soon. Sometimes, he wondered how she could be his twin when she was so preoccupied with clothes and stuff. Sam was a girl too and she wasn't like that but then Peter thought with a little smile as he reached the dining room, Sam wasn't like most girls. She was beautiful and brave and she didn't care if her clothes got dirty or minded having to climb up that tree. Peter was too young to understand the feelings inside himself when he saw Sam Tanner but he did know that she was everything his sister was not and this was good thing. 

He reached the dining table and saw his father at the head of the table, scouring through the paper as his mother greeted him with a little kiss to the forehead upon reaching them. Peter smiled with a hint of crimson on his cheeks because even though he was too big to be kissed by his mom, he still liked having her do it. He liked the smell of her perfume; unaware at this stage in life it would follow him forever as the definitive memory of his mother. That faint whiff of lilac would always bring back images of Julia Standish until the day he died.  

"Good morning darling," Julia said smoothly. "You're smelling a bit better today." 

"It wasn't my fault!" Peter started to protest, feeling more than a little defensive about yesterday's goings on. 

"I believe your mother was simply making a comment Peter," Ezra commented. "Besides, you must admit you are less ripe this morning." The gambler gave his son the same smirk he often saw staring back at himself when he looked into the mirror.  

"I know," he returned Ezra's smile, telling himself he should have known that it was just his father's way of having a little fun at his expense. Peter loved his father who did not seem like other fathers. Ezra was rarely authoritarian, preferring to let his children find their own way but giving a gentle nudge when it was required.  

 _Just don't tell him you want to build things with your hands_ , he thought. Peter's disclosure that he wanted to be an inventor had just about given both his father and Grandma Maude a stroke. 

"I take it by your less than quiet hollering at your sister, that you both have plans to which Penelope's attention to detail is making you tardy?" Ezra asked as he returned his gaze back to his paper once again.

"We're only going to the creek." Peter replied. "Why she gotta be dressed so nice to go the creek?"  

"Because she is a woman." Ezra answered automatically and then lowered his paper enough to give Julia a playful grin. 

"Says the man who takes longer than I do to get dressed for  _any_  occasion." Julia deadpanned. 

"A gentlemen must comport himself with dignity my dear Julia," Ezra said with great dignity. "We must be an example to our children." 

Peter started to chuckle, aware that his father was on the defensive even though there was no indication of it. Ezra always seemed to remain cool under any occasion. The only persons who seemed capable of making his father flinch was his mother and Uncle Chris. However, Peter did notice that his father never seemed very comfortable whenever Grandma Maude came to visit either. However, both Peter and Penny adored Maude because if their parents were wonderful than Maude was pure fun. Maude was always teaching them all these neat things that she made them promise not to tell  _anyone_. He was not good at the card tricks she taught them but Penny seemed to have a real knack for it and often played with Ezra. But then nothing about Peter was stock standard Standish.

 "Its about time!" Peter grumbled upon seeing Penny arrive into the room.

She made a face at him and declared. "You're just mad because you want to see Sam." 

"I do not!" Peter protested hotly, his cheeks flaring in red at that revelation. "I just want to get going. We're gonna be late."

"Now Penny," Julia interjected, seeing the embarrassment on her son's face at that disclosure which had also managed to shake Ezra's poker face with surprise. "You know that it's rude to keep people waiting if you're supposed to be there."

 "I'm sorry mama." Penny said apologetically and gave Peter a dark look when she sat down to breakfast. 

"Uh Peter," Ezra cleared his throat, anticipating the talk about the birds and the bees was a few years away and then realised his son was ten years old and that time was catching up with him. "Just do me a little courtesy where the young Miss Tanner is concerned should Penelope's assertions regarding your affections towards her be correct." 

"It isn't..." he started to protest but Ezra silence him with a look the gambler seldom used on his children but had the power to tell his son that listening was required now,  _not_  a response. 

"In case it does develop that way, do remember that her father is a crack shot and it will not be you Vin chooses to use for target practice if any improper behavior is made towards young Samantha." 

"Okay," Peter responded but did not quite understand the sudden lines of concern on his father's face or the sniggers his mother was trying so hard to stifle. 

Grown ups were  _so_  weird. 

* * *

Annette Dunne sat at the kitchen table mesmerised as her brother continued to read the last part of the story he had scribed while he had been in his room the night before when mommy had put him to bed straight away after his return home soaking wet. She was not quite five years old years old and yet she knew that unlike most little sisters that had awful brothers, hers was the greatest in the world. When he told her his stories, she was taken away to a world with fairies and princesses, where there was magic and flying horses.

"And they lived happily ever after." Adam looked up from the pencilled writings on the papers before him and smiled as he came to the end of his tale. 

"That was so good Adam." Annette exclaimed, gushing as only a barely five year old could. "Do you think Princess Anna will really live happily ever after?" 

"I said so didn't I?" Adam nodded resolutely, having written that particular tale for his younger sibling, aware that stories about castles and princesses were her favorite. In fact, they seemed to be the favorite of most girls, even Sam though Adam doubted the girl would ever admit it. Penny liked it very much though, she often said so when Adam made up such tales. When his mother had banished him to bed last night after he had returned soaking wet from his expedition with Sam and Penny for fear of his catching a cold, Adam had spent the time conjuring this little flight of fancy, knowing that it would delight his sister no end. 

"That was wonderful Adam," Casey Dunne replied as she looked over her shoulder at her son from the stove where she was retrieving the aromatic bread that had been rising most of the morning. Casey was not certain where Adam had inherited his vast imagination but she was glad that he did. His stories though childlike in their substance had a quality about it that captured almost everyone who heard them. Even though she had been busily readying breakfast this morning, she could not help listening to Adam's story as he related it to Annette who listened carefully with nothing less than delight.

"Wasn't that wonderful JD?" Casey asked as her husband walked out into the kitchen.  

"It sure was." JD answered somewhat pleased at the boy's ability. He did not say it to Casey or even to his son but the inheritance of literary ability that Casey had wondered about a moment ago had come from his mother. She had been able to put him to sleep as a child with the same stories full of wonder and imagination. When he heard Adam tell his tales to his delighted sister, it felt like he had his ma back in his family again. 

There was a time when JD would have wanted a child of his to become a lawman just as he was. However, time had left indelible impressions upon his psyche because he had seen enough death and bloodshed to know that he wanted something better for his son. If Adam's calling was to entertain people with stories such as he had once been entertained in his youth and so inspired to leave the city to find his destiny in the town of Four Corners, then JD could imagine no better future for Adam.

"So what are you kids up to today?" JD asked as he sat down. 

"We're going to the creek." Adam answered. "I'm gonna take Nettie if it's okay." He glanced at his little sister and then at his parents, hoping they would consent 

Casey stiffened at the suggestion, still rather cautious about letting her little girl to venture out on her own even with her brother keeping a close eye upon her. Adam was just a baby himself and although Casey had to remind herself he was almost nine, she also still remembered the babe that had been placed in her arms years ago the night he had been born. She could not help feeling the same trepidation the first time Adam had ventured out on his own and supposed that it was the same feeling for Annette that caused her to worry so. Suddenly, she had an idea of what Aunt Nettie must have gone through when she was a girl and felt little bit of sadness knowing that Nettie was no longer with them, having passed two summers ago. 

"Please mommy," Annette implored, wanting so much to go. "I promise I'll be good." 

"It should be okay," JD glanced at Casey trying to convince his wife. He was aware that trips to the creek usually meant that Adam would be joined by a larger group of children which included Elena Rose Wilmington and Mike Larabee, who were at the best of times, responsible kids who would keep an eye on Annette as well.  

 _Just don't let them anywhere near Nathan's lab_ , JD had to stifle a smile as he heard about the adventures of Mike, Elena Rose, Tommy and Peter of yesterday. While Nathan had been furious at the time, JD who had chanced to see him in the saloon later that evening was laughing openly about the subject in retrospect.

"Okay," Casey said uncertainly. "Adam, you promise me you take good care of your sister."

"Yay!" Annette was jumping up and down with joy at being allowed to accompany her brother.  

"I promise." Adam said confidently, able to see for himself that her mother was a little nervous about Annette's first outing without one of her parents. 

"Hey," JD beckoned his son over. Adam slipped out of his chair and approached JD. When he was close enough, JD leaned over and looked Adam straight in the eye. "Keep a close eye would you?" He asked. "You know your ma worries."  

Adam nodded in understanding, always feeling some measure of pride at his father's confidence in him by this private little chats. They were what JD called talks man to man. Adam had been familiar enough with them over the years to know that JD did not make such request lightly. "I will pa."

"Thank you Adam," JD said with a smile and leaned forward to plant a little kiss on the boy's forehead. Adam flinched a little but JD did not care because his son could be fifty years old and as his father, JD would still see him as this little boy in his glasses, making a man's promise to guard his sister.

* * *

"I don't know whether I ought to let you," Nathan Jackson looked at his son critically, the memory of his laboratory, in its more than disheveled state still fresh in his mind. In truth, the doctor knew he should not be so hard on the child. Just because being a slave did not allow him to get into all kinds of trouble as a youth, did not relieve his son from doing so either. Nathan could not deny that once his anger had calmed and he had recovered from getting the hell scared out of his following the hearing of that explosion and the realisation that his child was in the room from which it originated, he had found the whole thing quite funny. 

Tommy said nothing, his lip hanging down in an expression of remorse guaranteed to shake even the most resolved of heart. Rain was sitting at the table attempting to make Rebecca eat even though the little girl was being none too cooperative. She glanced at Nathan and gave him a little look, which was almost as far as she would go to expressing her thoughts on the matter. It was agreed that such disagreements of opinion should never been made in front of Tommy and usually took place after the boy was excused from their presence. However, on this occasion there was no time for such deliberation.

"You did wreck my lab." Nathan pointed out. 

"I promise I'll fix everything." Tommy quickly said, trying to show his father he did not mean to do what he had. Actually he did mean to make the potion required by Mike Larabee, he just did not intend to destroy the lab in the process. "I'll clean it up and I got allowance saved so I can put back what I broke." 

Nathan felt his insides melt and knew that he was close to capitulating. He glanced at Rain and saw no help there. She was just as touched by Tommy's attempt to make good on the damage as he was and shrugged her shoulders, a clear indication that whatever he decided would be supported by her.  

"Alright," Nathan conceded. "You can go to the creek with the others." The doctor replied, giving his permission for the boy to go on his outing with the children of his best friends.  

"Thanks pa!" Tommy brightened up immediately, a smile stealing across his face. He had his mother's looks and when he beamed, his face lit up. 

"But," Nathan spoke up, just to ensure that his son did know that he had done a bad thing and Nathan's concession was not license for him to do it again. "You will stay home tomorrow after church and help me clean that mess." 

"I will Sir," Tommy answered eagerly. "It was a stupid idea anyway. I knew I shouldn't have used gunpowder." 

"No you probably shouldn't have." Nathan agreed on that point and wondered if Chris and Ezra had the same type of trouble. Of course they did, the healer told himself because their children were usually with Tommy when these things happened. They were as thick as thieves, the children who were spawned from the men known as Magnificent Seven. Hadn't the seven been known to have their fair share of trouble in the early days of their friendship and hadn't they always survived those ordeals because of that same friendship? Why should Nathan expect Tommy to be any other way? 

"Still, you do have an eye for chemicals." Nathan found himself admitting after a few minutes of quiet reflection as he watched his son wolf down breakfast with more enthusiasm now that he was allowed to go join his friends. "So," Nathan gave Rain another one of those silent looks hoping she would go along with him on this suggestion as she had done on so many others in the past. "If you want, you can start helping me in the lab." 

Tommy stopped eating and stared at his father. "With you?" The boy was almost stunned at the possibility. 

"Don't see anybody else fool enough to let you near their lab." Nathan said with a smile, pleased at the reaction he was getting. "Of course I don't make things that are supposed to stink up a school or blow up but you might get some idea on how it should be done properly. Instead of just watching me, you can learn something." 

Tommy was still saying nothing, wearing that same astonished expression in muted silence. His father had never invited him to work with him in the lab! It always seemed like such important work that Nathan did not trust Tommy with, that was why Tommy had resorted to sneaking in there on his own. Of course, after what happened yesterday, it appeared his father might have had valid reason for restricting him from the premises. However, to hear that after all that, his father wanted to teach him, was beyond his ability to process for a few seconds. 

"Well say something Thomas Josiah Jackson," Rain teased with a little smile, never loving Nathan more than at that moment. "I think your father's waiting for an answer." 

"I don't care!" Tommy exclaimed. "Even if we were making boring old cough syrup, I don't care as long as you showed me."   
"I think we can manage a little better than cough syrup." Nathan replied. "Now you best get going if you're gonna meet your friends." 

Tommy nodded dumbfounded and got to his feet, eager to run off and tell Mike and Peter the good news. He hugged his father and then his mother before disappearing out of the kitchen. Once he had gone, Rain walked over to her husband and leaned over to kiss him tenderly on the mouth. 

"What's that for?" Nathan asked, pulling her to his lap before she could return to Rebecca again 

"No reason," Rain answered. "Just wanted you to know that I love you Nathan Jackson and you are wonderful father." She paused a moment and then added. "However, if he hurts himself I blame you." 

* * *

Buck Wilmington looked at Elena Rose and wondered once again how quickly the years had passed. As he drove the family into town where Inez was required to open the Standish Tavern while he had some errands to run before heading out to the ranch, he found himself reflecting upon his life the past twelve years since he had married and become a father. So much had changed in that decade and a bit, so much had happened since he had been ushered out abruptly from the bed of yet another lovely acquaintance by Vin Tanner's deception and cast his eyes upon Chris Larabee again for the first time in years. He did not know it then but it was a turning point for all of them, not just Chris. 

Four Corners had changed too. There was a moment back in the past when they had thought it would disappear like so many small towns in the Territory but with the sands of time quickly dwindling upon the old century, Four Corners was still standing. While it was still too small to warrant the railroad coming through here, it had become a large town, almost as big as Eagle Bend had been when they first arrived here. Law and order had brought businesses and the establishment of the railroad not too far from this area had brought new settlers and new opportunities. The Lucky 7-horse ranch had also benefited from the influx of settlers and truth be known was on a well enough paying basis to warrant all their wives to quit working should they so desire.

The usual bickering that occurred between Elena Rose and her younger brother whenever they were confined in any place together for a time captured his attention. He would have been alarmed at the volatile nature of their relationship if he did not know for a fact that almost all brothers and sisters behaved this way. James Darien Wilmington was not quite six yet and Buck knew that it was a little bit of the devil that made him name his son after JD, not only in the name James but also with the combination of the letter in his middle name. Still, the boy was never referred to as JD and everyone knew him as Jimmy, which suited both JD and his namesake quite fine.

"Quit it!" Elena Rose retorted. "I swear I'll drown you when I get to the creek James!" 

"Come on now," Buck intervened, realising that parental obligation required his interference even though he was trying not to smile at his children's antics. "Play nice or you can both come to work on the ranch with me."  

Both children immediately fell silent, not at all liking the idea of doing chores when the sunshine was so tantalizing and swimming in the creek with the rest of their friends even more so.  

"Sorry dad." Elena Rose said apologetically and then gave her brother a dark look who promptly stuck his tongue out at her. Elena rolled her eyes and looked at Buck. "You know I was happy being an  _only_  child." 

"Take it up with your mother," Buck said with a mischievous grin. "She's the one who can't keep her hands off me."  

"I don't want to know dad." Elena frowned. "Please, I'm still a child."

 Buck grinned but he she was not that. She was edging towards womanhood and he knew that when that happened he would have to buy a shotgun because there would be more suitors than he liked, paying to call on her. 

 _Over his dead body._  

"I forgot," Buck replied. "So where do you want to get dropped off?" 

"At the playground." Elena answered breezily. "He has some strange idea that it's safer if we all went to the creek together." 

"He did huh?" Buck frowned, aware that it nothing to do with protection but more about how Mike felt for his daughter. Buck was not certain how he felt about that except that Elena was too young for anything romantic. However, he supposed somewhat reluctantly that if his daughter was going to give her affections to anyone, he could stand it being the son of his oldest friend. Besides, it was apparent to all and had been since the very beginning, that Mike Larabee adored her. 

In that anyway, he had something in common with her father. 

"Well he can't help it if he feels for you." Buck remarked. 

"Feels for me?" Elena Rose stared back at her father as if he was mad. "I wouldn't have Mike Larabee even if he was the last boy on Earth!" 

For some unknown reason, Buck was suddenly struck with a sense of deja vu. 

"Ellie and Mikey sitting in a tree." Jimmy started to chant. "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" 

Elena nudged her brother in the ribs as her father started to laugh that deep throaty laugh that brought a smile to her face no matter, how annoying both men were being. At this moment, Elena understood why her mother liked to use those Mexican expletives so often, just before she kissed her husband. The mental picture made Elena Rose wince.

_Oh...too gross!_

* * *

Mike had not meant to eavesdrop, honest.  

He had been minding his own business waiting near the school house playground for the others to arrive when he had wandered off a little, always keeping an eye on Kyle who was at the swings, pushing himself to dizzying heights like a pendulum gaining momentum. Mike knew his brother well enough to know the endeavorwould continue until it was time to go to the creek or until Kyle got sick, which ever came first. He rounded the school house in order to see if anyone else he knew was making their way to the meeting place designated to be the starting point for their day's activities when suddenly, he had voices emanating from inside the building. For a moment, he wondered who would be there on a Saturday and soon realised that the voices did  _not_  belong to Audrey King. 

Curiosity getting the better of him, Mike proceeded up the stairs and listened quietly at the door for a moment, wondering if the reason they had chosen this place to hold their discussion was because they were up to no good. He was after all a Larabee and like his father, he had a strong sense of moral sensibility, not to mention a nose for trouble that often landed him in the same more times than he could think. Mike made sure he was carefully hidden because he did not want to be discovered, all the while ensuring his hiding place still allowed him to keep an eye on Kyle. 

"I'm telling you this map is junk!" One voice declared and it a voice full of anger and impatience so it was difficult to recognise. 

"But I was sure...." the second voice, which sounded younger implored in response. "He said there is a mine out here. The old Indian gave me a map!" 

"Look," the first speaker declared, obviously not about to entertain this notion any longer, whatever it might be. "You got the thing from an old Indian in Vesta City who was probably a drunk anyway. He saw you coming Jesse and he played you like a damn fiddle!" 

"He didn't!" Jesse retorted, incensed by the accusation. He knew what he had paid for and it was no illusion! Unfortunately, he could find no way to prove it to his skeptical companion. "He said that there was a gold mine out here and if we could just find it, Hank we'd be rich!" 

"I'm done Jesse!" Hank, whoever he was barked so loudly that Mike flinched at the sharpness of the response and was certain that Jesse did too. 

"We've gone through all the books in this place, talked to more people then I care too and I think that nosy reporter from the local paper knows we ain't no prospectors. Besides, there ain't nothing out there but dust and more dust! I say we got taken and its time to cut our losses and go." 

"Not while I got the map!" Jesse shouted defiantly. "I'll find it with or without ya!"  

"You're coming home with me now Jesse!" Hank returned just as defiantly and with enough force behind his voice to sound the more convincing of the two. Mike did not have to see Hank to know that he was huge. His booming voice was evidence enough and immediately, Mike envisioned someone like Josiah who looked like he could break you in half if he was in the mind to do it. 

"No!" Jesse declared and the outburst was followed by a shuffle of feet, the sound of knuckle meeting flesh and a crisp rumble of sound that resembled paper being crushed. A second later, Mike heard footsteps coming towards the door and immediately withdrew further into his hiding place in order to keep from being seen. He had never met either Jesse or Hank but he had more or less decided that he did not want to after the violence of their discussion. 

The doors burst open and Mike saw the backs of two men walking past him. Well one was walking, the other was being dragged with a large hand on his shoulder to ensure that there was no further resistant to the idea of leaving. They did not see him in his departure and Mike was glad for the bulk of Hank was confirmed upon their emergence into the daylight. Mike watched them continue up the walk that led out of the school and waited until they were completely out of sight before he emerged into the open.

Gold mine?

The adventurer in Mike could not help but be inspired by that snippet of news. He knew the history of the area fairly well thanks to his mother and did not recollect there being mention of gold in this locality. However, as he glanced into the empty room where the men had obviously put to use some of the books that Audrey had kept in the place, he noticed something under one of the desks. The ball of paper had come to rest at the foot of the seat that was normally taken by one of Jo Potter and instinct told Mike that it was not scrap left over from the school year.  

Looking about furtively and ensuring that neither Hank or Jesse were coming back while at the same time, seeing Kyle was still on the swing, Mike stepped inside the empty school house. Once he had taken that first step, he hastened his pace across the rough floor boards and dropped to his knees when he reached the seat in question and saw his prize. Whatever the scroll of paper had been, it was too old and too stiff to really scrunch up into a ball. It sort of folded in where fingers had pressed against it but it was not too damaged when Mike retrieved it.

Pulling the folds apart and stretching the browned paper so that he could make a better observation of it, he noticed landmarks almost immediately. This was mostly because he had been a resident of these parts all his life and also because he happened to be friends with the daughter of a tracker, whose talents appeared to be quite hereditary when it came to finding obscure trails in the wilderness.

It was a map! Mike thought excitedly as he followed the landmarks and some rather fanciful words he could not make out but did not at all look like English. He had a feeling it was what Penny called Latin that for some unfathomable reason Ezra Standish had made her learn. Suddenly a flash of inspiration came to him as the possibilities of this map started to imprint itself upon his brain. Penny could read some of this and Sam could probably find her way there because if he could recognise some of the features in the terrain, then he knew for certain that Vin Tanner's daughter would be able to do better.

 He thought about finding a real life gold mine and not just finding it but going in search of it! The very notion was so exciting that Mike's heart almost skipped a beat thinking about the possibilities. They could all go! He did however felt a momentary pang of guilt knowing that despite the fact that this map had been carelessly thrown away, it still belonged to somebody. Unfortunately, youthful enthusiasm seemed to neutralize that notion with all its good intentions. After all, Hank and Jesse  _had_  abandoned the idea of finding it themselves so it would not be wrong if Mike were to take it now, since they obviously no use for it as evidence by its careless discard. Quickly folding the map, Mike tucked it into the folds of his shirt and exited the schoolhouse, suddenly deciding that his summer was about to get a whole lot more interesting.

* * *

Mike did not present his idea until all of their number had appeared which in its complete accounting amounted to ten when they had all arrived. Although Mike did not wish to speak in front of the younger children, it would be unlikely that they would be able to do so otherwise since Kyle, Annette and Jimmy would become even more curious if they were excluded from the discussions. Since the group was scattered from all different parts of town and some out of it, the schoolyard seemed a perfect place for their rendezvous when embarking on one expedition or another.  

Mike said nothing to his companions until after they had left the schoolyard far behind them and were at the creek which was often the venue for much of the childhood years. He did not want to risk anyone overhearing them or running into Jesse or Hank in the instance they came back for their map, which as far as Mike was concerned had forfeited any right to the minute they had tossed it away. Of course, such points of law could be obscured when one of the two men in question was as large as a house and the fact that Mike would rather this be kept from his parents or any other adult for that matter.  

The creek to which they had made countless visits in the past was one of those places that quickly get forgotten as soon as adolescence thinned into adulthood but was nevertheless remembered fondly until the day one passed the realms of mortal living. It was a playground of clear running water, of large boulders that made perfect platforms for diving, of bulrushes where frogs could be found in abundance and all the things that made innocence delight it in it so. In a time of peace they would never know again once adulthood and all things that came with time set upon them, this was their favorite place. 

He presented his prize to his companions shortly after they had arrived there and paused to indulge in the assortment of lunches and treats mothers always made them take, whenever they went on any excursion.  

"What is it?" Kyle asked eagerly. 

"Well if what those two men in the school house was saying was right," Mike rolled out the parchment like paper flat on the grass for all the others to see. The rest of the group crowded in around him to get a closer viewing for themselves. "Its a treasure map." 

"A treasure map?" Elena Rose said skeptically. "To what?" 

"A gold mine." He said proudly and felt a thrill of pride hearing the soft  _oohs_  and  _ahhs_  that followed that disclosure. 

"Are you sure?" Elena Rose continued. "I never knew there was a gold mine around here." 

"Neither did I." Sam responded, although she was less likely to discount the possibility than Elena Rose because she knew from what her father had said that the Territory was largely unsettled even with the railroad. It would be another good ten years before people filled up the place so much that nothing could remain hidden. As unlikely as it might be, a gold mine hidden in the hill was not so much out of the realm of possibility. "Hey," she noticed something else as she studied his map however. "I know this place." 

"I thought you might," Mike offered her a smile and for some reason, Elena Rose suddenly felt her annoyance piqued at that action, although she dismissed it a second later as being Mike's foolishness in yet another wild goose chase. 

"Where is it Sam?" Peter asked, not happy that Mike had smiled at Sam either. 

"Well by the looks of this." She pointed to a crudely draw formation of rather sharp peaked ridge. "I think that Cullens Ridge."  

"Is it far?" Tommy asked.  

"No," she shook her head. "We could probably walk it." 

"I say we follow this map." Mike announced, doing what Uncle Ezra would call 'laying all his cards on the table. "I say we follow it and find the gold."  

"Are you insane?" Elena exclaimed. She did not mean to be a pessimist but being Inez's daughter had allowed her to be in possession of more common sense than most children her age. "We can't go after the gold! We don't even know it exists." 

"But it would be so much fun Ellie." Jimmy spoke up, imploring his sister not to be such a stick in the mud. Jimmy's whose adventurous spirit took after his father. "Please, can't we go?" 

"Its foolishness." Elena grumbled. Most of the time, her brother annoyed her to no end but when he used that whining voice, she found that she could not resist it. "Oh alright." She groaned in defeat. 

"I want to go too!" Kyle declared, deciding that if Jimmy could go then he was going as well and if Mike didn't let him, he was going to make his older brother sorry by throwing an inspired tantrum. 

Not wishing to waste time and wanting to get started as soon as possible, Mike nodded in agreement just so that he could avoid an argument. Besides, he doubted if he could keep Kyle quiet about their quest if he did not allow his little brother to participate. "Okay you can come." 

"So when do we go?" Penny asked, having been more than accustomed to accompanying Sam on all manner of insanity that this hardly phased her. 

"I thought now." Mike said looking around the eager faces before him to see if they agreed with his decision. "We'll have a little lunch," he suggested. "But not all of it. Its gonna have to last us awhile and then get going. Sam, do you know the way to Cullen's Ridge?" 

Sam was still studying the map but she recognized many of the landmarks and had to agree that they were obscure. Unless someone was born around here with a deep knowledge of local terrain, the landmarks that were figured so prominently in the scroll would have meant nothing to them. However, she also noticed the strange words that did not seemed to be English and looked up at Mike in inquiry. 

"Say, what are all these words next to it?" She asked. 

"I don't know," Mike shrugged his shoulders. "I thought Penny might be able to read it. I think its Latin." 

Penny who was the closest thing they had to a linguist in the group mostly because Ezra Standish believed that no young lady or gentlemen for that matter could truly be considered educated without an understanding of languages other than the mother tongue. While Peter had soon proved impatient with most of Ezra's suggestions since his mind found more interest in visualizing what he could build rather than read, Penny had excelled.  

"It's not Latin, its Italian." The redhead said after coming along side Sam and examining the words she was discussing. 

"Italian?" Tommy asked. "Is that like Mexican?" 

"Its what they used to speak in Italy, stupid." Adam retorted and garnered a sharp jab in his ribs from the would be chemist.  

"Wait a minute." Peter looked at Mike. "I thought you said those two got this thing from an old Indian?" 

"That's what I heard." Mike replied, recalling what he had overheard in the schoolhouse when Jesse and Hank were discussing the map and its origins. "Hank said that Jesse probably got taken by that old Indian who was probably a drunk." 

"That's crazy." Elena had to agree with Peter on this observation. "Why would a scroll coming from an Indian have Italian writing on it?"

Mike could not understand but he could see the illumination in all their eyes as they stumbled upon the same enigma that he had when he first saw the parchment with its foreign words. Perhaps this was more than a gold mine, Mike thought. "So what does it say Penny?" Mike asked a moment later, noticing that Penny was reading the thing very carefully and her eyes had not moved from the strange lettering. 

"I'm not very sure but it is strange." Penny responded, capturing all their attention with the concentration in her face and the determination upon which she was striving to translate the text before them. "Its like Italian but not quite. I'm not so sure if this is the same kind of Italian that I'm learning and its not Latin."

"How can it be so different?" Sam asked. 

"Well," Penny paused a moment, trying to find the words to best describe what she was seeing before her. "Its like reading the bible you know, the words are English and we understand them but its not the same as when we talk."  
Her face wrinkled up in distaste because she did not believe she put across her meaning very clearly. However, Adam suddenly exclaimed. "I know what you're talking about. Its like  _old_  Italian!" 

"Old Italian?" Peter looked at the younger boy. 

"Yeah," Adam answered enthusiastically because if there was one thing he knew with any clarity, it was books and the way they were written, having devoured pages after pages of fiction from the day he was able to read. "Words change as time goes by. People in the bible don't talk like they sound any more because it was so long ago. Maybe, that's the same with this map too." 

"You think it was written a long time ago." Mike responded and agreed that it Adam's deductions made sense.  

"I can't think of anything else." Adam replied.  

"Then how did the Indian get hold of it?" Elena inquired, realizing to her horror that she was getting swept away by the momentum of her friends' enthusiasm and wondered why not? After all, she was not adverse to the idea of embarking on an adventurous crusade, now that she had become more accustomed to the idea. Besides, the way it was looking, it did not matter what her objections were, they would still go and she rather be with them when that happened, rather than left behind.  

"Who knows how long it could have been lying around for someone to find?" Mike glanced at her, pleased that she was showing more inclination to join them. Elena Rose could be terribly serious sometimes but at the heart of her, he knew that there was a lively spirit waiting expression and required only the right catalyst to let it speak its mind. "If its been here for all that time, only make sense that an Indian would find it."

"And why he couldn't read it." Sam added.  

"Yeah," Mike agreed. "Not many Indians know how to speak Italian." 

"Not many white men either." Peter commented as well.  

"So what does it say Penny?" Tommy turned his attention to Penny once again. His inquiry was followed by other such questions from the others. 

_"To find the spoils of a thousand journeys_

_By those who had crossed the endless sea,_

_Come into the bosom of the earth._

_Come to me."_

  
"That's what it says to do when we get to Cullens Ridge." Penny answered, finishing her recital. 

"That's the way to find a gold mine?" Peter looked at her skeptically. "Are you sure you're reading it right Penny?" 

"I'm sure," Penny bristled in annoyance at being questioned. "You want to read it Peter?' 

"You know I can't." He hissed back. 

"Hey," Mike spoke up. "Knock it off you two." He gave them both a look unaware that it was a patented Larabee glare, allowed its use on by means of genetic inheritance. Despite his ignorance to this fact, the action worked and the two sparring siblings stopped bickering immediately. 

"I don't think its meant to be easy to find," Mike pointed out when things had settled down again. "I think its supposed to be a test." 

"But we're just little." Annette spoke. "Can we find it all by ourselves?"

"Sure we can," he gave the little girl a smile, suddenly reminded of Sarah and wished she were old enough to join them on the amazing trip they were about to take. "We'll just be extra careful that's all. Besides," he said brightly. "How much trouble could all this be?"

 It was at this point that Elena Rose knew this was a really bad idea.


	4. Uninvited Guests

 

She was exactly fifteen years old when Lilith decided that she wanted to become a journalist like Mary Travis. She had no idea what had inspired the notion except perhaps that Billy's mother always seemed to be in the thick of things and had a spirit about her that was more than just independence. It was irrefutable that Mary guided the path Four Corners had taken from small frontier town to bustling township, riding the wheels of progress that swept the West during the post war years. Mary's opinion that translated so well into paper had a way of reaching people that ordinary speech could not do and in the years following Lilith decision to follow in the great lady's footsteps, she had come to understand the power of the press.

Mary had been thrilled to have a young protege who wanted to learn her craft and it made it all the more enticing when the young lady in question was her oldest son's constant companion. Lilith supposed in retrospect that it was really quite inevitable that she and Billy would eventually marry since they had been best friends from the day they had met. Lilith had waited for his silly infatuation with Julia Pemberton to discover that the love he thought he had for Mrs Standish was more appropriately meant for her.

Still despite her marriage to Billy, she had no intention of giving up her career as a budding journalist. Although Mary did not say it out loud, Lilith had a feeling that when Mary was ready to retire; she would hand over the Clarion News to her daughter in law. With a new army post established not far from Four Corners and Billy's request to be posted there, the viability of her assuming that role was not so outlandish. Lilith was thrilled that when she finally became Mrs Travis, she would not be forced to leave the home and the large family she had found since coming to Four Corners.

For the moment anyway, marriage and control of the Clarion News remained in the future. Lilith found herself perched on top of this chair inside the kitchen of the home where she lived with her mother and her stepfather Josiah Sanchez, being fitted for her wedding dress. Although she was eager for the day to come, she could help but wonder if there was a more expedient way to prepare a wedding dress for the day. A slightly devious smile crossed her face when she wondered whether or not it would be utterly wicked of her if she simply conjured up a gown for the day and then decided that it was probably not.

Although she was hell bent on being a journalist, Lilith had not forgotten the dabbling into the arcane arts that first brought her mother and stepfather together. While she had promised Josiah not to treat the grimoire in her possession lightly, Lilith had spent the last years studying it carefully, developing her ability to manipulate the supernatural in what she called 'baby step' progression. While Lilith disliked the word witch, preferring instead the more benign appellation of conjurer, she could not deny that she was far more skilled than someone who merely drew rabbits out of hats. Fortunately, these abilities were of no surprise to Billy who had viewed her preoccupation with spells and magic in their youth with fascination. 

With a smile, she remembered how they had both been enjoying the scenery that surrounded the Lucky 7 ranch when they were fourteen, watching the flowers straining to grow in the grass when she showed Billy that there was more to her than he had ever believed. Exerting but a fraction of what she was capable of because any more would have frightened him, she had delighted Billy in helping the tight fitting buds bloom, peeling back the petals just by looking at them. After that, she continued to reveal her abilities in small doses, allowing him time to accustom himself to it until it became a wonderful secret they had shared throughout most of their adolescence. Billy seemed to behave more as if he had been let into some secret part of herself that she could trust no one else with other than Josiah, who kept watch and offered her well needed advice in its application while ensuring her mother knew nothing of it. 

"Ouch!" Lilith winced when she felt the sharp sting of a dress pin digging into her hip. "Momma, you're sticking me!" She winced. 

"Sorry darling," Audrey apologized immediately, trying to speak through a dozen pins in her mouth. "I almost done." 

"Thank god," Lilith sighed. "I want to go and talk to Hank and Jesse Young again." 

Josiah who had dropped home to get some lunch immediately looked up from the cup of coffee he was about to imbibe and spoke. "Why? 

"I don't think they're just prospecting," Lilith said automatically, recalling her perceptions of the men in question when she had encountered shortly after their arrival in town. There was something about them that did not seem right and the senses that she relied upon, not just the ones that were common to most, told her that they were lying about their intentions in town. Like any good journalist, Lilith smelled a story and was determined to uncover what they were really here for. "I think they're after something else."

Josiah did not doubt that but when Lilith looked that set on something, he knew that there was reason to be concerned. Since Lilith had embarked upon her career as a reporter with the Clarion News, Josiah had been called upon to pull the girl out of more situations than he could possibly think. With a little pang of sadness, he realized that she would soon be a married woman and it would not be his responsibility to be there for her as he had throughout her youth. When she left this house and became Mrs Travis, it would be Billy not him that would take on that role. 

Josiah did not mind being supplanted; aware that this was just one of those things that fathers had to deal with. It was hard to disconnect Lilith from the image of the little girl he had taken to his heart as ardently as he had fallen in love with her mother when he stared at this beautiful young woman before him. Physically, she was very different to Audrey who had a tendency to look sultry and vibrant. Lilith was willowy, with golden hair that fell loosely down her shoulders and azure coloredeyes that always seemed filled with secrets. Audrey said Lilith took after her father which Josiah could not deny because her mother appeared earthy while Lilith reminded him of the good china Audrey hated to use unless they had company. 

He stared at her for a long while, feeling this surge of paternal affection and reminding himself to ask Mary if it was the same for her when she looked at Billy and saw the little boy she had loved and doted upon all grown up into a man. Josiah felt it most profoundly these days; the closer and closer Lilith neared her wedding day.  

"I can't say you're wrong there." Josiah remarked, getting back to the subject at hand. "They came to town with at least four men to just go prospecting. Prospectors don't like having too many partners, a claim can get might small when you have to share it." 

"That's what I thought," Lilith said excitedly, now that she had evidence that she was not leaping to conclusions in Josiah's endorsement.

"Lily, stay still baby." Audrey instructed as she prepared to insert another pin into the lacey fabric. "Josiah, do you mind not getting her excited when I'm trying to do this?" 

"Its too late now momma," Lilith grinned and flashed her mother an affectionate smile. "I'm on a roll." 

Audrey threw her husband a dark look that told Josiah they would have words later and the older man could not say he minded. Audrey might be cross with him for a while but they had such fun making up later. "Sorry," he remarked with a little smile of mischief when he saw the same thought crossing his wife's mind. "Lilith, these men have a dangerous look about them. I don't think they'll appreciate you getting into their business." 

"I'm not," Lilith responded. "I'm just going to do a little snooping. In any case, you're right about them being dangerous. I looked at some of Mary's files and it appears that Hank has been named in some murders that took place in Silver City, apparently he worked for some cattle rancher up that way. The sheriff believed he was responsible for clearing some smaller properties of their rightful owners but apparently they had nothing to prove it so Hank walked." 

"What about Jesse?" Josiah asked. While Hank might seemed shady enough, Jesse did not. In fact, the younger man looked rather bookish.  

"Oh he's Hank's younger brother," Lilith answered. "There's nothing much on him." 

"That's something at least," Josiah frowned. "Now after hearing all that, I think I would like you to stay away from him Lily." The former preacher said with enough force in his voice to mean it.  

"Josiah," Lilith looked at her stepfather as if he was being silly. "I'm not going to get into any trouble, I'm just going to ask a few well meaning questions." 

"That's how you usually get into trouble, Lilith." Her mother added her voice into the mix and Lilith wondered if these two had any idea of what a journalist was supposed to do. Mary Larabee got into trouble all the time, just ask Chris and she had managed just fine. Lilith was certain that she could do better, especially when she had some hidden resources that her mother knew nothing about and her stepfather was always cautious she not use. However, the days were gone where she was in danger of conjuring reality altering spells. These days, Lilith's spells were not so ambitious and usually done on the spur of the moment. 

"Momma, I am the star reporter of the Clarion News," she said haughtily. "How can I be expected to bring truth and justice to the West, if I cannot tell the complete truth. I must not be afraid of going to any lengths to get my story." 

Both Audrey and Josiah rolled their eyes collectively with the latter giving his wife a look. "Well she  _doesn't_  get it from me." 

* * *

Billy Travis was on his way to the Sanchez household to tell Lilith that he would in most likelihood be joining his stepfather at the Lucky 7 ranch today when he saw his fiancée on the street. The moment he cast his gaze upon her, Billy knew something was up because of her manner and her walk. After so many years at her side, studying every aspect of her because she was in his opinion, the one true love of his life, Billy knew almost everything about Lilith. Just how much he knew would have surprised her had he decided to tell her about it, which he did not mostly because he liked surprising her with his insight sometimes. He could tell as she paused and gazed furtively across the street that she was following someone and as his eyes traveled along her line of sight, discovered that she was looking at two men whom he did not recognize.  

The first one did not give him much cause for concern, mostly because he was slight in stature and appeared to be rather bookish with his glasses and his uncertain eyes which seemed to dart about the place like a frightened rabbit. The second man however, did. Aside from the fact that the man practically towered over his comrade and seemed twice his breadth, Billy had seen enough evil in his life to know that there was something about the man that reeked of it. He looked as if he could break a man in half with those massive hands and as he continued up the boardwalk, those who happened his way knew it too for they quickly too a step back to give him a wide berth. What business did Lilith have with these men that she was so intent on keeping her surveillance hidden? 

Stupid question, Billy told himself immediately. What else would she be so fired up about? A story. 

Suddenly, Billy had some idea of what Chris went through with his mother even though Billy was certain that Chris would have Mary no other way, just as sure as the fact that he would not trade that indomitable spirit displayed in his future bride for anything. Still, if he was going to accept that little trait about Lilith, then he was going to have to accept that he was going to spend a lot of time getting out of trouble as well. Then again, his parents had that kind of relationship and Billy could not deny that the result of that was to make them more passionate about each other than any two people he had ever seen.

That seemed the way for all the seven with their women now that Billy came to think of it. He supposed that to be the woman in the life of the men once called the Magnificent Seven and still were to most of the town was to be accepting of the dangers that came with them. However, the seven always seemed to weather the storms and in the last twelve years had almost become something of a local legend though none of them really liked being considered as such. Yet it was true. Whether or not they liked it, times of adversity in Four Corners would always have the townspeople looking to the seven men who had defended it for so long. 

As he approached Lilith with just as much stealth as she was attempting to display in following the two men, he could not help feel a wave of affection at her determination to remain unseen. The funny thing of it was, Billy had always considered Lilith his best friend during most of the years they had spent growing up. His infatuation with Julia Standish had continued even after the lady had wedded Ezra Standish and for the second time, Billy found himself standing best man at a wedding. Although Julia doted on him still after her marriage, Billy had come to realize that she was someone he would always adore but love was not at the heart of that adoration. 

No, love had come when he had gone to the Academy. Until he actually left Four Corners and went to West Point, he had not understood how much apart of his life she had been. They had spent almost every day together since they were nine years old and she had become a woman before his eyes without his even noticing Billy could not describe his stupidity. Everything about her fascinated him, from her strong willed spirit so reminiscent of the mother he loved to the practicality of his stepfather that was still so reassuring even now. He even accepted the fact that Lilith had an understanding of secret world beneath the veneer of what was known and he marveled at the splendor of the magic she showed in the simplest things. 

By the time he made it home to Four Corners for his first vacation, Billy had inundated Lilith with so many letters declaring his love that a proposal was merely a formality when he saw her again. If anything had convinced him that he had found the love of his life, it was that first kiss. It was a kiss that he still remembered took with him everywhere, when he returned to the Academy and kept him warm at nights. 

"What are you doing?" He said in a stern voice as he sneaked up behind her and grabbed her shoulders suddenly, startling her to no end. 

"Billy!" Lilith exclaimed, feeling her heart leaping into her throat for a second and whirling around to swat him in the arm especially when he wore that damnable grin of satisfaction at catching her unawares. "God! You scared me to death!" 

"I wouldn't have if you were not doing something that you weren't supposed." He remarked as she glanced in the direction of Hank and Jesse before immediately ushered him back to the corner of the building to take refuge so that they would not see her following them. 

"I am tailing the suspect." She said as a matter of factly as she faced him again, her cheeks red with crimson because she was caught and they both knew it. 

"What suspect?" He folded his arms and stared at her. 

"Those two." Lilith tugged at his shirt and dragged his past the corner far enough so she could point out the two men. "They're up to no good." 

"I can see that." He said with a straight face. 

"They are." She hissed, trying to convince him. "I just know they're up to something and I'm going to get the story." With that, she peered over the edge again as she saw the duo emerge from the general store, this time looking a great deal more purposeful than they had a few minutes ago.  

Billy and Lilith watched as Hank and Jesse engaged in what seemed like a rather heated discussion that captured the attention of the few passers by who looked up in concern as they walked around the men, having no wish to be caught in an argument should it turn ugly. Lilith could understand that since Hank and Jesse were strangers and outwardly looked like men who were accustomed to ugly. Upon realising that their behavior was garnering undue attention, Hank appeared to hush Jesse and they both stormed down the boardwalk, appearing to have a definitive path this time.

"I wonder what that was all about." Billy remarked. 

"I don't know," Lilith shook her head. "But come on!" She grabbed his hand and towed him forward as she continued to follow them. 

Knowing any appeal he would make for common sense would be largely ignored, Billy decided to forgo any protest and just go with her. It was the best way to ensure that she did not get in over her head and besides, he could not help being curious to see if she was right. As they continued to keep the Young brothers in sight, Billy thought they might be heading to the saloon or perhaps even to their lodgings. Their journey had been fraught with the constant arguments that had saw its origins a few seconds ago and did not appear to abate as they left the main street. 

"Where are they going?" Lilith mused when she saw that they were heading to neither the saloon nor their lodgings at the hotel.  

There was only one place in the direction they were heading, unless they were going to visit someone in the many homes scattered about the area and that was the schoolhouse. However, what they could want there was beyond Billy's understanding. "I think they're going to the school house." 

"The school house?" Lilith stared at him confused. "Why would they go there?" 

"Hey I'm not the star reporter for the Clarion News." Billy retorted. "You tell me." 

Lilith bristled. "Did I actually agree to marry you?" 

"Yeah, so it's too late now." He grinned and urged her to get moving unable to deny that he was getting a little swept up in her momentum. "Let's go if you want to catch up with them." 

It was soon apparent that Billy was right about the direction taken by the two men. Hank and Jesse soon walked up the path leading to the schoolhouse, forcing Lilith and Billy to fall back just a little more because there were no more buildings to hide their pursuit. The duo made a brisk pace to the building had disappeared through the front doors when Billy and Lilith rounded the corner. Both bride and groom were at a loss to understand why the two men would have reason to visit that particular place and hastened their pace. 

Upon reaching the doors, the argument that had reached fever pitch and Billy pulled Lilith under the stairs leading to the door so that they could hear what was being said without being discovered.  

"It's gone!"  

"It can't be gone!" Hank barked back. "Its gotta be here. It wasn't more than a couple of hours ago!" 

"Well I can't find it!" Jesse declared petulantly. "Someone's taken it!" 

"We don't know that yet!" The larger of the two retorted.  

"Look, someone found it and discovered that the first clue is Cullens Ridge!" Jesse continued his insistence that the object they were seeking was stolen. "I told you that map was real!" 

"You don't have to say it again, Jesse." Hank growled. There was additional shuffling as they continued to search and for a few minutes, Billy and Lilith remained poised, listening for more of what was being said, realising that there was something more than just prospecting going on.  

"Well you right, it's gone." Hank said with a sigh after awhile. 

"What are we gonna do?" Jesse demanded and Billy wondered how long it would be before his brother got sick of that whining and did something about. Mike could go on for about five minutes like that before Billy lost his patience and took after him. Jesse was so annoying that Billy had to admire Hank's restraint. 

"We're gonna go out to Cullens Ridge and wait for whomever has our map to show up or catch up with them." Hank answered after a moment of consideration. "That good enough for you?" 

"Yeah," Jesse said unhappily but he must have been aware that he was pushing his sibling's patients to the limits and chose wisely not to exacerbate the situation any further. "We better get going soon, if they've got the map, we don't want them getting too far ahead of us. I read something about hidden traps." 

"It they don't know what they're doing, they won't get far." Hank said with a hint of amusement. "Come on," he called to his brother as he started walking across the floor towards the door once again. "We'll get the others and ride out." 

* * *

Billy and Lilith did not stir until the footsteps had come down the stairs and continued onto the gravel path that took them back to town. It was not until Hank and Jesse were out of sight, did the two emerge from their hiding place. Both were confused with what they had heard, not to mention tantalized. The mention of a map and secret traps had their imagination inspired but while Lilith considered a story, Billy was more concerned with where the map that those men were searching had disappeared too.

 "Okay you were right," he said with a frown once they emerged from under the stairs again. "They are up to something."

 "At Cullens Ridge." Lilith nodded. "We need to find out what that map leads to."  

"We got bigger problems than that." Billy retorted, considering the matter deeply. "Hank and Jesse looked extremely fired up for a map so that tell me there's some kind of fortune behind it. When those two catch up with whomever has got that map; they're going to have reason to regret it. We better get there first." 

"But who could have taken it?" Lilith replied easing down onto the steps as she pondered that question. "I mean its Saturday, nobody comes to the school house on a Saturday. According to Hank, it couldn't have been that long since they lost the map between them coming back to look for it, who could have been here in that time?" 

A very unpleasant thought surfaced in Billy's mind at that point. He tried to think that he could be wrong, that he was just grasping at straws but the more he considered it, the worse it became because it made sense. He tried to remember what Mike had said this morning at breakfast and then recall the approximate time he had had left the house with Kyle. Mike would not be that stupid would he? Billy asked himself and then remembered that Mike was almost twelve years old with a taste for adventure that was stronger that his need for self-preservation, which was exactly, what would be at stake if Chris found out about this.

"We need to get going." Billy said taking Lilith by the hand and dragging her off this time instead of it being the other way around.

"Going where?" Lilith looked at him suspiciously, which faded the moment she saw the real concern in his eyes. 

"To the creek." Billy answered shortly, not pausing in his steps as he continued down the path in forceful strides.  

"What's at the creek?" Lilith demanded, starting to get frightened even though she was a little hazy on why at the moment. His manner indicated something was terribly wrong. 

"Hopefully Mike and the other kids." Billy retorted. 

"Billy Travis!" Lilith stopped walking and refused to go another inch until he explained to her what was on his mind. Talk of the children while discussing in the same breadth Hank and Jesse Young made her extremely fearful and she wanted to know what he suspected. "I am not going any further until you tell me what's wrong!" 

"Mike was here today!" Billy turned around and said abruptly. "He and Kyle were going to the creek with Sam, Penny, Peter and all the others. He left the house a couple of hours ago. You know how it is; they always meet here before they go anywhere together. We taught them to do that remember? Safety in numbers?" 

Lilith did remember and what he said made sense. If by any chance Mike or any of the other children had been in the area at the time Hank and Jesse had come to the school house for whatever reason and discarded their map, one of the children might have found it. She tried to think of what adventures a child might see in discovering a tasty morsel like that and knew that if they were in possession in it, things were very serious indeed. 

"You don't think...." She started to say, feeling her heart tightening beneath her chest because that was exactly what he was thinking. "Mike wouldn't be that stupid." 

Billy looked at her. "At his age, would we have stopped to think if we got our hands on a real life map that might possibly have a fortune at the end of it?" 

Lilith groaned inwardly. "Oh my god." She dropped her forehead into her palm. "We got to tell Chris and Mary!"  

Billy winced at the idea of telling the parents about this just yet. If the children had found the map and had yet to do anything about it, then Billy and Lilith could retrieve it from them without any harm being done. Billy was not entirely sure he wanted to return it to Hank and Jesse yet but they would cross that bridge when they came to it. However, if the outcome was that amicable then there was no need to bring parents into it.  

"Not yet," Billy answered, having no wish to get his brothers or any of their friends into similar trouble. "There may be nothing to tell them if we can get our hands on the thing and give it back." 

"But if not?" She asked. 

Billy's head started to throb at the possibility. "Then we have no choice and I'll tell you, those kids better hope that Hank and Jesse gets their hands on them before their parents do. You have no idea how mad Chris can be when he's worried." 

"Really?"  

Billy found himself instinctively recalling the incident following his first viewing of a trapeze act when the circus had come through Four Corners and the events that followed later on when he attempted to 'practice' in the back yard from the branch of a high tree. He was nine years old and that was the day he discovered that it was quite possible to be almost grounded for the term of one's natural life. 

"Really."

* * *

They made it to Cullen Ridge in good time despite the fact that it was good three or four miles from the creek and for the younger children it was something of a hike. Still, Kyle, Annette and Jimmy had managed to keep up mostly because they were determined not to be left behind if they started to lag. It was the first time they had been allowed to accompany the older children on such an undertaking and the trio was not about to give them any reason to change their minds. Besides, Mike had been good enough to break their journey so that they would not get too exhausted.  

Cullen's Ridge stood before them, a large protrusion of earth that tapered into a narrow space about a hundred feet in the air. The path up the side of the ridge was rocky and uncertain which gave Mike some pause as he considered how they would scale it to reach the gold mine that was supposed to be at the end of this quest. As they stared at the imposing formation before them, Mike noticed a little hint of uncertainty crossing the faces of some of his companions. In particular, Kyle, Annette and Jimmy who were a little afraid of having to climb up such a high place. 

"Does the map tell us how to get up there?" Mike asked Penny who was staring at the unrolled piece of scroll.

 "I don't know," Penny replied. "I think this is a trail but I'm not sure."

"Let me see," Sam said coming alongside of her and glancing into the space where Penny was pointing.   
  
To Sam, the path appeared almost immediately even though they were cryptic to everyone else with her. She had no idea that it was a trait inherited from her father that allowed her to see trails where none seemed to exist. Ever since she was old enough to walk, she had been going out into the wilderness with Vin Tanner, absorbing everything he had to teach her as if it was a sacred trust. Like him, her mind grasped the insignificant and was able to superimpose it upon a larger frame of perception. It was what had allowed Vin to be the best tracker in the Territory if not beyond and allowed Sam an understanding of terrain that would follow her the rest of her life. 

"I see it." She said after a moment, her eyes shifting away from the map to the ridge once more. 

"You do?" Mike looked at her with some measure of surprise.  

"Yeah," she nodded, glancing at the scroll again just to make sure. "Come on," she urged the others to follow.  

"Okay just wait a sec," Mike told her to stop because before any of them went anywhere, they would have to take precautions. The ground was mostly gravel, which meant loss of footing could result in nasty fall. While he was certain the older members of his party could navigate the unsettled terrain well enough, he was not so sure about the younger children. "Rose," he looked to Elena. "I want Jimmy to walk in front of you." 

"Why?" Jimmy questioned immediately. "I can do it on my own." 

"Because I said so," Mike retorted in that voice so often used by Uncle Chris that often ended any arguments the children might have when the senior Larabee used it on them. Their conditioning to obey that sharp tone was no less when Mike said it and he usually did not use it without very good reason. Even Kyle knew better than to argue with it. 

"I don't want anyone falling okay?" He responded as he looked at Jim with a little smile  

That disarmed the young boy considerably and he nodded obediently. "Okay Mike." He glanced at Elena Rose. "But I want someone else. She wants to be an only child." He pointed a finger at his sister in accusation. 

"You'll  _be_  an only child if you don't start walking." Elena Rose declared with a huff, unimpressed by Jimmy's allegation. Brothers! "Get moving!"  

"You let me fall and I'm telling momma." Jimmy said defiantly, staring at his sister with a determined expression on his chubby features. 

"You can't tell anyone anything if you split your head open...." Elena Rose started to say. "Elena!" Mike declared rolling his eyes in exasperation at the two siblings. This was hardly the time for such bickering and despite his ambivalence towards his sister, Mike could see that Jimmy was just a little scared. He had good reason to be as far as Mike was concerned, that was not an easy trail before them. "You are not helping things." He looked sternly at Elena Rose.  

"Alright," she groaned rolling her eyes. "I won't let you fall Jimmy." She assured her brother. "I won't have any one to torture otherwise." She then smiled sweetly at Mike and said sarcastically. "Is that better?" 

Mike shook his head and decided he was not even going to bother responding, choosing instead to turn his attention to the other person with a considerably younger sibling. He did not need to tell Adam because the young writer was stepping behind his little sister already, who was trying to anticipate Mike's request by following what Jimmy was doing with Elena.  

"Same thing Nettie," Mike remarked even though it was rather redundant since Annette was already moving into position in front of Adam so her brother could guard her progress up the ridge. "You stay in front of Adam so he can catch you if you fall okay?" Mike said gently. 

"Okay Mike," she nodded in her small voice and brought an involuntary smile to his face when he saw her beaming at him. 

"Good," he winked in her direction and drew a giggle from the little girl before he turned to Kyle. "Come on Kyle." He motioned his younger brother forward, tugging the brim of his hat over Kyle's face when the boy reached him. 

"Quit it Mike." Kyle grumbled as he adjusted his hat back into position again. 

Mike laughed and then looked at the others. "Sam will lead the way, me, Elena and Adam will go next with Kyle, Annette and Jimmy. Peter, let Penny go first and Tommy, you're a better climber so you stay up at the end." He instructed. A chorus of voices soon returned in agreement with his orders before Mike glanced at Sam. 

Once they were all in position and Mike was certain that they could make it up the ridge with a minimum of mishap, he gestured for Sam to start moving. "Alright," he said with a grin. "Let's go hunting for gold!" 

* * *

It did not take them long to find what they were looking for. Despite appearing rather daunting from the ground, thanks to the map and Sam's navigation, the troop of children made it up the side of the ridge with far more ease than first assumed. Mike was pleased that their younger companions had traversed the terrain without incident. However, he had to admit to keeping a close eye on Kyle as they were making their way up the gravel covered side of the formation and assumed that despite her ambivalence, Elena Rose would be doing the same for Jimmy like Adam would surely have done for Annette. 

Eventually, they made up the uneven path and reached the mouth of what appeared to be a cave. It was difficult to tell at first because the entrance was covered up by shrubbery that had somehow managed to thrive in this particular spot. Sam, who feared nothing, Mike sometimes felt, immediately entered despite his warnings to be careful and emerged a short time later announcing that was an entire cavern hidden behind this disarmingly narrow slot in the earth that did seem large enough for a man to pass through without turning sideways. However, the passage seemed tailor made for them and even Mike who was the tallest of them would have little trouble breaching. 

"Its pretty dark in there," Kyle remarked to no one in particular but his comment brought to light an important point.  

Even as his younger sibling made that response, Mike could see the fear in the faces of the some of his friends and knew that while he had overcome his fear of the dark a few years ago, some of their party had not. Turning to Tommy, who was naked unless he had some of his supplies with him, Mike was confident the young chemist had the solution to their present predicament.  
"Tommy, you got any matches on you?" He asked looking at the boy who was always prepared for all occasion by the things he carried with him all the time. Mike remembered his father saying that the trait was genetic, that Nathan Jackson too always seemed prepared for the worst. Even though Tommy had come prepared for a day outdoors, his supplies were no less crucial for their adventure ahead. Like his father, he always carried plenty of drinking water; a bottle of medicine because someone  _always_  fell down and got hurt or scratched whenever they did anything together and of course matches. It was just like how Elena Rose always brought extra food because her mother Inez seemed to think she was still feeding a restaurant full of people.  

"Yeah I got some." Tommy nodded, reaching into the leather pouch he carried with him all the time. It was one that his father had made for it and Tommy was never without it. Mike always liked the look of it because Tommy's mom Rain, had decorated the leather with intricate designs native to the Seminole village from which he hailed and they had all visited at one point in their lives or another.  

"There's a branch over there that's about to fall off," Peter caught on immediately to what Mike was about to do and shifted off the path enough to be able to reach the particular branch that was in danger of snapping of at any time. He broke it off from the healthier part of the shrub and examined it closely before he stared at his sister. 

"Give me one of your spare linens Penny." He asked.

"Why?" Penelope looked at him as if he had asked her to donate a pint of blood. To Penny, who had been taught by her father in particular that one could never have enough handkerchiefs and such in particular with the company he kept, felt that departing with any of hers was almost a big of sacrifice as the former. 

"Because we need something to burn." Peter rolled his eyes impatiently. "And you're the only of us who it to spare." 

"Burn?" Penny declared in dismay, not liking the idea of any kind of apparel belonging to her ending up that way.

"We need to be able to see in there Penny," he cried out in exasperation. "You got a whole bunch of others!" He pointed to the spare he could see tucked in her dress.  

Spares or not, Penny was still reluctant to hand the item over without much ruminating until Sam exclaimed with the same amount of frustration in her voice as her brother was presently displaying. "For crying out loud, will you just give it to him before one of us takes it anyway 

"You wouldn't," she met Sam's gaze, unable to believe that her best friend in the world would resort to such intimidation. 

"No I wouldn't," Sam had to confess but she was safe in making that statement since Elena Rose was taking a step forward and the daughter of Inez and Buck Wilmington had even less patience than Sam and Peter put together.

"But I would," Elena Rose retorted. "Now give it up. If I can agree to go on this crazy trip then you can give up one lousy handkerchief." 

Penny let out an unhappy groan and handed the said piece of fabric to her brother. "I hope you're happy." She gave him a dark look. 

"Not half as happy as I am." Mike growled. "Jeez, you girls make things so complicated." He complained. 

"Us complicated?" Elena Rose glared at him, her hands on her hips. "I'm not the one who couldn't wait a week for school to close and came up with the stupid idea to make a stink bomb! Talk about complicating things!" 

"Will you two cut it out!" Sam exploded. "You sound like my parents." 

If anything had the power to silence them, it was being compared to their elders. Elena Rose and Mike stared at each other uncertainly for a minute before Mike shook the notion that was running around his head and turned to Peter.  

"Is that thing ready?" He asked the young inventor.

Peter who had basically ignored the bickering, mostly focussed on the torch he was attempting to make, looked at his handiwork proudly before he handed it to Mike. "As it will ever be." 

Mike took the torch and turned to Tommy who had the matches when he took note of the serious expression on Tommy's face as he examined what Peter had just built. "What's wrong?" 

"I don't know whether matches will do it." Tommy replied honestly. "It may need something else with a little kick." 

"Its not gun powder is it?" Penny sniggered and drew a sharp glare from everyone involved in that fiasco.  

"No it's not gunpowder," he retorted. Thinking for a moment, Tommy reached into his satchel once again and produced the bottle he usually carried for cuts and bruises. For some reason, his father made him carry it whenever he went out with his friends. The few times that Tommy had inquired why this was necessary, Nathan merely shrugged and replied. "With  _that_  group, you can never be too sure."  

Somehow, Tommy did not think Nathan was talking about  _his_  friends. 

"This has alcohol in it." Tommy explained as he uncorked the bottle and a whiff of something strong that made them all wrinkle their nose at its pungency, filled the air. 

"You mean liquor?" Adam asked. 

"Yes and no," Tommy answered. "Its supposed to be the stuff that makes liquor but its not all there is to it. My dad uses it to wash his hands sometimes when he has to operate, he says it kills germs." 

"He's right," Sam nodded in agreement. "My mom uses it too." 

"I don't understand," Annette asked meekly. "If it's for making people better, why do we need it to start a fire?" 

"It's like oil," Tommy quickly explained to the little girl, "if we put some on the rag, it will make it hot enough to keep the cloth burning." 

"Sounds like a plan." Mike replied handing the unlit torch to Tommy, confident that it ought to be Tommy who handled the thing since he had the least trouble with fire and seemed most comfortable with it.  

The other children watched in fascination as Mike and Tommy performed this little task and after a moment, the torch was lit and they were prepared to advance into the darkness of the cavern.  

"I'll go first," Mike said once they reached the mouth of it, unprepared to let Sam go in first. As capable as she was, he had been taught by his father that there were some things that was for a man to do, no matter what. "Tommy hand me the torch."  

Tommy complied, feeling a little uneasy about venturing into the darkness himself. Although most of the children had been initially excited by the prospect of going treasure hunting, as they prepared to enter the maw of this dark cavern, the reality of the situation caught up with them swiftly. While none of them wanted to turn back, they could not deny that they were just a little wary of venturing into the unknown, not to mention what they were embarking upon was not an endeavor that would have been completely sanctioned by their parents. Had they even known about it, that is. 

"Be careful," Elena Rose found herself saying as she saw Mike slipping through that narrow crack of rock that lead into the narrowing apex of the ridge. It was not a tone of voice she used with him normally and the passionate feeling of concern made Mike turn around and flash her a little smile of pleasure. 

"I'll be okay." He said confidently before disappearing through the opening. "Besides, it just a cave. How dangerous could it be?"

* * *

As it turned out, it was not so much as dangerous as it was icky. Or at least that was how the girls had described it the minute they had entered the rock walls of the cave and found themselves surrounded by that bane of little girls everywhere that had the power to terrify only the female of the species. 

Bugs.  

And lots of them. 

Approximately a full minute after Mike had breached the cavern walls and beckoned the others to follow, the adventure they had embarked upon appeared in the danger of coming to an end before it even had a chance to begin. Mike supposed he ought to have expected a few setbacks when they had begin this journey but he would have preferred them to emerge at least until they had gone some of the way, not poised to begin. However, as he faced the present obstacle before him, the young man had not have the insight or the understanding of the opposite sex to deal with it adequately and deal with it he  _had_  to if he ever wanted to find what was at the end of this odyssey. 

"Come on," he implored the three girls who were pressed up against the wall nearest to the exit of the cave, not prepared to take a step further after his torch had illuminated the rest of the cavern and showed them what they were in for. To his surprise, even Sam seemed reluctant to traverse the terrain before her while little Annette was firmly attached to Adam, her arms wrapped around her neck after her brother had been forced to pick her up. "Its not that bad." 

"Not that bad!" Elena Rose exclaimed, her eyes filled with terror at the sight of the squirmy, crawling things that literally covered the slimy floor before them. Even now, she was fighting the urge to run out of the cave screaming. "You could slap a collar on some of these things and called them ROVER!"

 _Well she did have a point there_ , he had to admit. The collection of spiders, roaches, centipedes and other six legged life did seem rather prolific and despite his efforts to remedy the situation by stepping on them, apparently there was something about the sound of insects being crushed underfoot that could make women squeal like nobody's business.  

"Elena Rose, would you please come?" Mike asked again. "I don't think it's like this all the way." 

"It isn't!" Tommy declared returning from the shadows with the torch. "It just goes a little ways and then it stops. Really!"  

"That doesn't change the fact that we have to get from here to there." Penny said defiantly, looking at the floor in front of her. It moved like pool of dark ebony, shiny carapaces gleaming underneath the light of the flame. They crawled along the walls, moving faster and oblivious to the presence of the humans, having little or no mind to sense the death of its brethren, knowing only to escape the fate that befallen them. 

"Sam," Peter appealed to the tracker's daughter who seemed to waver a bit in her resolve to remain where she was with the continued insistence by her friends that there was nothing to fear. "You're not afraid of anything. I can't believe bugs would get to you. I mean, you took Penny to see that coyote and her babies and weren't you the one of the first to ride a horse on your own? I mean you can do anything Sam. You're not going to be afraid of a bunch of bugs are you?" 

"Oh hell." Sam swore with distaste, aware that Peter had pushed all the right buttons to get her away from that wall. "I'm coming." She whined. 

"I'll help you," Peter said bravely, reaching his hand out towards her as she started to come forward.

Sam closed her eyes and took it without hesitation, wincing in disgust each time her foot created a wet squelch against the floor. If not for the fact that it would have been completely undignified, she would have let out a horrified squeal each time it happened.

"Get her out of here quickly," Mike ordered, wishing Peter to take Sam out away from the bugs before her resolve wavered and she ran screaming back towards that wall again. Adam and the others did the same as Mike tried to think of how he could use the same argument to draw Penny and Elena Rose into performing the same trick. He thought that Penny might be the easier of the two to convince because the young girl was already staring after best friend with indecision on her face and same at her lack of courage to do the same as Sam.  

"Just don't look down Penny," Peter beseeched his sister, once he had hurried back out to join Mike after he had left Sam on the other side of the cave that was fortunately devoid of arthropods. With him was the torch and he quickly handed it to Mike.

"Tommy says we can use this to chase the bugs away." He replied.

"Good idea," Mike said gratefully and immediately began waving the torch close to the ground and sending all the insects scurrying in all directions, mostly up the walls to avoid the perilous fire. "See, it's completely safe." 

"Penny," Peter tried again, more adept at reaching his sister than anyone else. "Don't be such a baby, just because you were born two seconds after I was." 

"I was not!" Penny declared. "I'm older than you Peter! Mom said so!" She replied quite incensed that he was attempting to usurp her position as the older Standish child.  

"Well you're acting like a little girl. Do you want me to carry you like Adam has to carry to little Nettie?" He teased. 

"Hey," Mike hissed under his breath at the other Standish twin. "Are you sure this is gonna work?"  

"Oh it will work," Peter said with a devious grin that was totally Ezra Standish through and through. "She may know how to play the cards but  _I'm_  the one who knows how to bluff." 

"Neat." Mike returned with a grin. "Got any tips on how I can get Elena Rose over here?" 

"Why don't you do what your dad always does?" Peter asked, since observing his father had proved so expedient. Mike had to know tons of stuff from watching Chris Larabee.  

"Because she's too heavy to sling over my shoulder." Mike retorted without needing to think twice. 

Peter did not choose to ask Mike what he meant by that since the expression on his leader's face appeared quite serious. Instead, he concentrated his efforts in getting his sister to follow him to the other side of the cavern. "Are you coming or not little sister?" He asked, with more than a hint of derision in his voice.

 "I am not your little sister!" Penny growled before bracing herself to step away from the wall. Groaning in disgust the moment she felt the soft soles of her shoes making contact with the living carpet of insects on the ground, she winced with each sound of crushing that echoed through the cave. Fortunately, Mike's ministrations with the torch earlier had send more of the insects scurrying and there were not as many as there were earlier. Just as he had been supportive to Sam earlier, Peter grabbed his sister's wrist and pulled her the rest of the way, ensuring that they crossed the space that was required in a skerrick of time it would have taken had she been forced to do it herself. 

"Elena Rose," Mike turned to her now that there were alone. "Come with me."  

"Mike...." she looked around herself, watching all those squirmy things and knew that she was not brave enough to do what the others had done. "I can't." 

"It won't be the same without you." He said with a tone that was not at all like Mike Larabee, in fact it did not even sound like it came from an eleven year old. She gazed at him for a moment and realized that she had never seen him appear more like Chris then he did at this instant.  

"I'm scared." She confessed, daring to admit it now that the others were on the other side of the cave and could not see her vulnerability. Elena Rose did not like to show the soft interior to her personality that Mike had always known was there. From the earliest memory of her, Mike had thought that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen and with an insight he knew not how he possessed in his youth, Mike knew that she would be his last thought when he died. 

"I'll never let anything hurt you Elena." Mike said earnestly and knew it was not just their present situation he was talking about but rather the life he  _knew_  he would share with her. 'Please, take my hand. I don't want to go if you're not with us Elena." 

Those intense eyes staring at her and the hand that awaited her to only reach across the darkness and take it suddenly mesmerized Elena. Suddenly, Elena realized that if she took his hand, if she gave into that voice that called to her at this moment, things between them would never be the same again. Despite her protests to her father earlier, Mike Larabee was her best friend. He had been since they had been children. More than any other in the group, they had grown up side by side. Their mothers had been best friends and their fathers had weathered storms Elena was certain she would never really understand, not even if she lived to be a hundred.

As she stared into eyes that were sometimes blue sometimes green but always dancing with flecks of gold, she knew that there was no question really of what she ought to do. Swallowing the lump in her throat because suddenly, not even the bugs around her seemed as dangerous as that outstretched hand. Yet, knowing the danger, she reached for it and felt his warmth enveloping her fingers before Mike pulled her gently to him.

She ended up in his arms, his arm around her waist as he caught her and for a moment, she felt her heart quicken in her chest, not understanding why and yet not at all afraid by the lack of knowledge. Something had changed between them and though she would need a few more years to understand what it was exactly, Elena felt slave to this feeling that told her that somehow she no longer belonged entirely to herself, that there would always be apart of her that was his. 

"I'll get you through this." He said softly, affected by her closeness. 

"I know you will." She answered just as quietly, their eyes locked unable to move from each other. 

He smiled and it was a real smile, Elena found herself thinking. A Larabee smile, so rare to be seen on the son and even more scarce on the father. "Hang on to me." He instructed, taking command of the situation only because he felt just as flustered as she and felt the need to do something to circumvent the confusion he felt at present. Like Elena Rose, he felt the same shift in their relationship, as if the childhood part of it had dropped away, shedded like a skin they had outgrown.

She held on to him as they crossed the mouth of the cave, the torch he was still holding in his hands lighting the way as they ran across the live surface of the floor, Elena repulsed when she felt her shoes crush insects underfoot. "Oh this is so yucky." She complained.  

"Just don't think about it," he instructed and they continued their steady pace until they reached the others at another narrow opening through the wall that led into a secondary chamber of the cave. Very soon they were with the others once again. 

"Took you two long enough," Tommy remarked upon seeing them. "What were you doing out there?" 

Elena Rose and Chris looked at each other and smiled enigmatically.  

"Nothing." Mike turned to his companions and said gleefully. "Let's keep going, we got a lot of ground to cover." 


	5. Underworld

 

Billy Travis looked around the space the children normally occupied during trips to the creek and was not all happy by what he had found. More disturbing than the absence of his siblings and their friends was the silence that was left in the wake of their departure. The surface of the creek lay still with the lack of disruption other than the occasional ripple caused by some unseen creature skimming its edge. Other than the sounds that came with daylight, there was no other signs of human life other than himself and Lilith who was scouring the terrain a little further out, perhaps hoping to find the group engaged in play that did not involve the waterway before him. 

Having the tutelage of the best tracker in the Territory who just happened to be his step father’s best friend allowed Billy to determine rather quickly that the children had left some time ago and where ever their destination had been, they had gone together. Billy was not surprised about this either. As a youth, he could not imagine anything more exciting than going off on some adventure although when he was younger he did not seem to have so many friends as Mike and Kyle did now. He supposed that it was no one’s fault really. The years after his father’s death had left him in something of an emotional whirl and it was not until Chris Larabee had entered his life, did Billy chose to leave those demons behind. In truth, he knew he had never really recovered from the experience and there was something inside him that could not bring himself to confess just how difficult it was for him to fit in with everyone else after what had happened. 

Of course it did not help that some of the townsfolk were not that eager to let their children near him because of his connection to the seven. Danger followed these men on almost a daily basis back then and by extension, those who were around them. Billy did not blame the seven because the lack of friends his own age had been eased by the protection of seven men to whom he was like the child they wanted for themselves or the innocence they had once possessed. When Audrey King came to town, things changed dramatically. Suddenly, he found himself not so alone and often in the company of a blond girl with an eye for things strange and mystical.  

Billy had never had cause to look back. 

Later on, when the other children came, he found himself with so much responsibility in keeping them all out of trouble that he hardly noticed the absence of friends his own age. It was a source of great pride to know that he had been present at some of the most pivotal moments in Mike’s life, remembering the little boy that often followed him around, driving him insane with distraction the way Kyle was doing to Mike now. Those were things that had more weight to Billy than gold and he loved all of them, not just his own siblings.  

Billy remembered teaching Sam how to tan the leather to make her sling, the way Vin had thought him. He remembered babysitting and reading the Three Musketeers to Mike and Elena Rose, the way Chris had read it to him when he came down with the measles. He recalled the night that Peter and Penny came into this world. How Julia had invited him into the room after the difficult birth and whispered in his ear that she would need him to love them as he had loved her, even though by then his infatuation had long since faded despite how dear she was to him still. 

Caring for all of them had been his responsibility and when he finally left Four Corners and went onto the Academy, he had charged Mike with the same duty because Michael Larabee was his father’s son and like all the Larabee, leadership came naturally. Now, as he looked around this empty place where there ought to be the sound of children playing and swimming, he realised that Mike had probably been snared by the same desire for adventure as any child in order to be convinced into embarking upon the trail of the Youngs’ map. 

The tracks left behind gave him a very good idea of where they went and how they had started the journey. Going home to get their horses would take too much time Billy deduced, and Cullens Ridge was not far to reach by foot. He had hoped that having Kyle, Jimmy and Nettie might have given the older children cause to abandon this quest but supposed that the lure of it would have been just as strong on the trio of youngster as it was upon their older siblings. 

"I can’t find them." Lilith announced as she emerged from the bushes from the immediate area she had been searching. 

"They’re gone." Billy rose to his feet after staring at the tracks in the dirt and all the other indicators to prove it in the terrain around him. "By the looks of the tracks, some time ago." 

"God," she groaned out loud. "We have to do something. We have to find them."  

"Yes we do and before Hank and Jesse find them." Billy added as he strode to his horse and beckoned her over because they did not have a lot of time if they hoped to catch up to the party before the Young gang got there first.  

"You don’t think they’d harm the kids?" Lilith stared at him for a moment, shuddering inwardly at the thought of any of them being in the hands of Hank Young. Hank was a killer even if there was no proof that could hold up in a law of court. The evidence of all the people he had chased off their land for the cattle rancher he worked for was enough to convince Lilith of that fact. 

"I don't know," he answered honestly and it was this lack of knowledge that concerned him most. They knew almost nothing about Hank or Jesse Young except that one man was a killer and the other was rather determined to reclaim his property. Whether or not that determination meant that they would take their anger out on the children whom had taken their discarded property was uncertain and once again, Billy felt that old responsibility for all the children of the seven of which he was the oldest rear its head again. "I don't know how much of a head start the Youngs have on us but I'm guessing that they're closer to Mike and the others than we are because of this little detour." 

"God yes," Lilith agreed and another disturbing thought emerged in her head. "Billy, Hank has a gang and he doesn't know that it is children who has their map. He may go in firing without even realising it until its too late." 

"I know," Billy nodded, having already considered this possibility which was why he was making his way to his horse in order to make the journey to Cullens Ridge without haste. He considered what they ought to do as he strode towards it. Billy had lost all hope of containing the situation, the minute he arrived here and discovered that the kids had already embarked upon their quest. As much as Billy wanted to keep any of the children from explaining to their parents what they had been doing, he knew that the situation had evolved beyond that hope. As it was, it would be something of a minor miracle if Billy could reach them before Hank and Jesse did but if he failed, if those men got to his brothers and their friends first, then Billy would need help.  

He would need the seven. 

"You got a note book on you?" He glanced at Lilith once he reached the saddle of his horse. 

"Of course," she looked at him strangely because he ought to know that she was never without the thing. A good journalist had to carry a pen and paper with her at all times. "Why?" 

"I want you to write a note," he instructed.  

"A note?" She asked, not comprehending to whom he would wish to scribe a message at this time, not when they had bigger concerns on their minds. 

"Yes," he nodded. "I want you to write a note to Chris because if we don't reach Mike and the others in time, chances are they won't be getting home before supper. Chris will worry and then he'll come looking for them and the first place he'll look is right here." 

"I see." Lilith understood and lauded him for his insight into his stepfather's pattern of behavior. Then again, despite the fact that Mike was Chris' natural child, the former gunslinger still considered Billy his oldest. "Billy do you think we'll get to them in time?" She asked as she retrieved the notebook in question from her pocket and immediately began penning the note that they would leave behind for Chris and the rest of the seven when they came looking for their children.  

"No," Billy replied honestly. "I don't think so but we're sure as hell going make a good try." With that he glanced at the notepad and gestured for her to continue writing since this discussion could be conducted on route and he wanted to get going as soon as possible.  

Lilith continued writing and she included all the relevant information before tearing the page out of the book and handing it to Billy. The Academy cadet immediately reached into his saddle and retrieved the knife he used to for whittling and pinned the note to the nearest tree he could see that was in clear line of sight of anyone who came here in search of his younger siblings and the friends. Hopefully, Chris would see this if his efforts to bring back Mike and Kyle home failed.  

Billy suddenly looked at Lilith who was waiting for him to give her a boost up to his horse and wondered if he should not endeavor to go on this alone. The creek was walking distance back to town and she could make it there in no time. He did not want her placed in danger, especially if he had to face Hank or Jesse to in any type of confrontation.  

"Lilith," Billy said carefully, aware of how volatile a subject this was going to be. "Maybe you ought to go back to town."

 "Why?" She stared at him, not at all liking the idea of leaving him alone to face god only knew what.

 "I don't want you hurt." He said quietly. Everything he felt about Lilith was different now. There was a time when he would want her at his side in any adventure but since he had discovered how much he loved her, thoughts about her life worried him and he had no wish to endanger her when it could be avoided. Billy knew that he was being irrational because she had more effective means of protecting herself than he could ever imagine but he could not help it, he loved her and on the eve of her becoming his wife, he wanted nothing to prevent that day from taking place.  

"Billy Travis, I am not having this conversation with you." She stated firmly, not about to let him go all  _Chris_  on her. "I am coming with you and that's that." 

"It could be dangerous." He pointed out, unsurprised by this reaction from her. 

"Of course it's going to be dangerous!" She exclaimed. "When was there ever any doubt in your mind about that? There was not in my mind besides, you're going after Mike and the others, trying to beat two men maybe more to them. You're going to need me whether or not you like it." 

Billy could not deny that but he still did not like it. "I love you Lilith," he found himself saying. "I just don't want to risk losing you for anything." 

Her features softened and she placed her hand on his cheek as she gazed into his hazel colored eyes with a smile. "I'll be okay," she said with a smile. "And trust me, you may need me and my bag of tricks before the day is out." 

Billy lowered his lips to hers and partook of a soft, lingering kiss as he allowed himself to be convinced that she was right. Inwardly, he knew that she could protect herself and probably him too if it was required. Her ability to casts spells was far more potent than she led him to believe, of this the young man had no doubt. Still, he did not fear the magic that surrounded her because it was one of the things that made her all the enchanting. 

"I love you," Billy said with a smile, delighting in the speckles of her blue eyes. "Even if you are just like my mother." He retorted just before he lifted her onto the horse. 

"That better be because I'm a terrific journalist like her!" She grumbled as she nestled herself in the saddle and waited for him to mount the animal.  

Lying through his teeth, Billy looked at her with a grin and remarked. "Of course darling, that's what  _absolutely_  I meant."

* * *

Clearing the den of insects, the children found themselves on the other side of the cavern that was thankfully devoid of the swarm they had encountered upon first entering its dark formations. Mike in particular was doubly grateful because it meant they would encounter no further difficulties in convincing the girls in their party to continue. As Penny studied the map with Sam peering over her shoulder, Mike and Peter took a moment to examine the rest of the cavern as Adam and Tommy supervised the younger children as they took the time to rest while they could. The trek up the ridge had been arduous for the little one and even though it was something of a pain bringing them along, Mike found himself thinking that he was glad he had agreed to let them come. After all, this adventure would not seem complete if all of their number were not present.

The cavern was not like any cavern they had seen before. While the exterior had been a place of craggy edges and gravelly texture, the inside of the ridge was smooth, the walls felt more like polished stone rather than naturally occurring sediment. As they followed the small tunnel that led away from the cavern, deeper into the depths of the mountain, Mike ran his fingers along the sides and felt the even surface on his palms. Like the rest of the cavern's interior, the passage seemed just as peculiar. The space from one wall to the other could barely fit full-grown men and Peter and Mike could barely walk side by side without bumping into them.  

"You know what this feels like?" Mike asked as they continued down the tunnel, which was narrow and dank, yet steep in its incline into the darkness. To make things simpler, they had snapped the branch that had been their torch into two in order to make another light to leave with Tommy and the others while they made this reconnaissance trek on their own. After much convincing toward Penny and as Peter grumbled to Mike later, much complaining, she had sacrificed yet another one of her linens to act as torch. Tommy was confident that once the flame had seeped into the wood, they would need no such accelerates and she would not be asked to sacrifice any more of her lace. 

"What?" Peter asked as they neared what looked like the end of the passage. He was not really listening to Mike that closely because in the last few feet towards the bottom, he had picked up a distant sound growing louder as they approached the end.  

"Like those pebbles we find at the creek," Mike remarked. "Those ones that got smoothed by the water." 

At the mention of water, Peter stared sharply at Mike and exclaimed. "That's what it is!" 

"What?" Mike looked at him quizzically as Peter closed in the last few paces of the journey towards the bottom of the tunnel. 

"That." Peter said when the tunnel came to an end and the path they had been taking disappeared just as abruptly. Peter and Mike found themselves staring at a mouth of a larger cavern when the passage had emptied into and noticed through the dim light of the torch that its surface reflected back at them with the shimmering consistency of an underground lake. It stretched for as far as the light would allow it and the reflection of water covered its entire expanse.  

"Oh hell." Mike let out a sigh at the discovery of this extremely formidable obstacle. More and more, he was becoming convinced that this was no gold mine and the explanation about the texture of the wall was rather obvious. He wondered how long this underground store of water had been hiding here. Considering how valuable commodity water was in the dry landscape of New Mexico, this was a veritable treasure trove and yet Mike refused to belief that this lake was what the map was meant to hide. 

"I wonder how deep it is." Peter asked, leaning over the edge and slipping his fingers into the pool. The water felt fresh although there was just the hint of a metallic tang emanating from the cool air within the cavern.  

"Hey be careful." Mike immediately reacted. "You have no idea what's in there."  

Peter looked over his shoulder and retorted. "We're gonna have to find out if we're going in there. This treasure hunt on your is dead in the water otherwise." 

Mike let out a sigh and knew that he was right. "Alright," he said begrudgingly. "But if anyone's going to find out how deep that is, its going to be me." 

"Why you?" Peter asked, willing to test the waters for himself and not requiring Mike to spare him the task. He knew Mike tended to be protective of all of them, it was a responsibility driven into him by his father, Uncle Chris and then by his older brother Billy. Peter had to confess that he was glad that he was not Mike sometimes, it must have been hard to have everyone having such lofty expectations about you just because your father was Chris Larabee.  

"Because," Mike said as he yanked off his boots and stripped down to the clothes he would have worn had they gone swimming at the creek as planned. "I'm taller than you for starters and if you drown, my father will kill me anyway. This saves time." 

Mike had a way with putting things that seemed to cut through all the incidentals, Peter thought to himself. While it was not necessary when one was Ezra Standish's son and had a father who made a request to clean up his room sound like an oratory spoken in Congress, Peter was nonetheless grateful. "Be careful." 

"You sound my like mom." Mike pointed out as he started slipped over the edge in order to let himself into the water.  

Without saying another word, Peter pushed him over the edge.  

Mike fell into the water face first and created something of a splash upon impact. Peter could only smirk as he saw the older boy stand up in the water, sputtering with annoyance as he whirled around and glared at Peter about to speak when the young inventor cut him off. 

"That better?" Peter grinned.

  
Mike wiped the soaked hair out of his face and returned the younger boy's smirk with a dark look. "Yeah," Mike nodded and offered out his hand to Peter. "Help me up will ya? The ground slippery and I can't back over the edge." 

"Sure." Peter responded and extended his hand. No sooner than their skin had made contact, Mike clenched his fist around Peter's wrist and pulled his arm back sharply, dragging the younger boy the rest of the way. Peter made almost as unceremonious a landing as Mike did and created just as impressive a splash as he disappeared momentarily under the black water.  

"Now I feel better." He looked at Peter with that same smirk. 

"I'm so glad," Peter said sarcastically.

* * *

After climbing out of the underground lake, Mike and Peter returned to the others and reported what they had discovered while at the same time, checking on the progress of Penny's translation of the map in her hand. Obviously the only path that led to the next phase of the journey meant they had to travel into the waterway but Mike would have felt better that they had confirmation of this before they embarked upon that particular route. From what he and Peter had seen, the cavern was vast and they could be wandering forever, if they were uncertain of what they were doing.

"Okay here it is," Penny announced to all her companions following her quick study of the map, in particular the section dealing with this secret waterway before them.  

"What does it say?" Adam asked quickly. 

She squinted as she tried to see in the dark and instinctively Tommy moved the torch closer so that she could read the words without difficulty. "Thanks," she offered him a grateful smile and faced the map again. "It says that once we reach the hidden vein where the lifeblood of the land flows, we must accept the challenge of the gate keeper. To face the trial we must think with more than our eyes, see with more than our minds." 

"What does that mean?" Tommy asked quizzically, unable to wrap his mind around the enigmatic meaning of those words. 

"The gate keeper?" Elena exclaimed. "That doesn't mean there's someone in here is there?" She asked apprehensively, unable to imagine what kind of creepy individual would be living here, guarding some moldy gate. 

"Its probably just a saying." Adam spoke up, alleviating her concerns. "This map is so old if there was a real guy, he'd be dead by now." 

"So we don't have to do it?" Tommy asked, finding that a little too easy. In truth, he would have like to have seen a moldy old gatekeeper, waiting throughout the ages for someone to answer his challenge. That would have been so neat.  

"Maybe," Mike responded with a deep frown thinking the same thing as Tommy, that it was too easy. However, his nature was far too suspicious for him to let it go at that. While Tommy was disappointed at their ease over crossing this particular hurdle, Mike was more concerned that it was not all easy, that there might be something waiting for them in the darkness that was undisclosed. "We ought to be careful anyway." 

"So that's got to be the hidden vein thing." Sam declared as she emerged from around the corner wearing the clothes she would have been swimming in if they had gone to the creek. In retrospect, it was rather fortunate that the day had turned out as it did from those beginnings because they were now prepared for this particular little escapade. "I mean water is like the life of land. No water, nothing grows." 

"I guess," Penny shrugged, never really considering it that much. Water was just there. It was one of those things that children who lived the life she did with her parents never considered. Her mother and father were townsfolk while Sam's excursions with her father had given her a deep appreciation of the land. 

"Alright then, let's get started," Mike spoke, eager to get going even though he was starting to have concerns that he did not wish to voice to anyone at this point, since he had dragged them all out here, about the safety of continuing on this quest. He wanted to go on an adventure but he did not want to get any of his friends hurt either. 

"Mike, I can't swim so good." Annette suddenly confessed. The little girl had been anxious of this moment ever since they had come to this juncture in the journey and she did not want them to turn back because she did not know how to swim. This was her first trip to the creek and she had hoped to get better but if they had to go back because of her, she would just die from the shame. 

"That is a problem," Mike remarked before Adam quickly spoke up. 

"Its okay, I'll help her." Annette's brother replied, still mindful of what JD had told him during their 'man to man' talks at breakfast this morning. 

Mike did not answer for a moment because Adam was not exactly tall himself and he would be just able to manage making the crossing himself without having to worry about his sister as well. Annette was a small child. In size, she was just a little taller than Sarah was. "I got an idea." He suggested and quickly stepped to the edge of the tunnel and slipped into the water. Turning around after he was immersed, he came to the edge of the path where the stone ledge met the water. "Nettie, climb onto my shoulders." He instructed. 

"You want to carry me?" She looked at him. 

"Yeah," Mike flashed her a little smile. "You ain't that heavy. Take your shoes off and come on." 

Annette glanced at Adam, almost as if she needed his permission because in the absence of either of her parents he was the closest thing to a parental figure she knew. Besides, she had promised mom that she was going to be good.

"Go on Nettie." Adam nodded. "I'll take your stuff." Her brother offered Mike a grateful smile, knowing that Annette would be happier with this conclusion than his trying to keep her a float. If he were big enough himself to carry his sister, he would have but as it was he felt a great deal of affection at their leader for trying to accommodate his little sister. 

"Mike are you sure about this?" Elena Rose inquired as she saw Nettie padding over to him. Her small feet making soft sounds against the stone as she moved towards the edge. 

"Yeah I'm sure," Mike said confidently. "You're just a little too heavy for me to carry Elena, sorry." He threw her a mischievous grin to which she rolled her eyes in sarcasm. 

"I wouldn't climb on your shoulders if you begged me Mike Larabee." Elena declared, her hands on her hips, in the typical fashion of all women of the Rosillos line, even if they did have the last name of Wilmington.  

"Now you really sound like my parents," Sam teased, perfectly aware of what was going on between Mike and Elena Rose.  

Sam could not say she was surprised. The two had been inseparable for as long as she could remember and while Sam's own friendship with Mike was close, she did not have the kind of feelings towards him that Elena Rose did. Although, for some unknown reason, Sam could always pick up what was on Mike's mind far more accurately then Elena Rose did, which somewhat surprised the tracker's daughter. As far as she was concerned, Mike was a good friend and she trusted him more than she trusted anyone in the group but their friendship was different to that which she shared with Penny.  

Obviously, she did not giggle and be silly with Mike that she did with Penny but she did not moon over him like Elena Rose was now doing either. Sam could not explain it and it was strange because Mike seemed to have the same empathy with her. They were like family but not in any normal way which just confused her even more. It was this symbiotic awareness of his emotions that allowed her to understand what was happening between him and Elena Rose. It was not simply because the two of them were bickering like her parents just before she was sent out to feed the horses for a good hour while they stayed inside and 'discussed' things as mom would put it, but rather because Sam could read Mike easily. 

"Very funny." Elena Rose gave her a look but even in the darkness, Sam could see the tinge of pink in her cheeks.

Mike seemed very at ease with things though and Sam guessed that interlude earlier on that day where he had helped Elena Rose get past those awful bugs must have been more involved than she realised.  

"You okay up there?" Mike asked Annette once she was nestled around her shoulders and hanging on tight. There was just a hint of apprehension on her face but being with Mike seemed to help. 

"Yes Mike." Annette said beaming at him. 

Sam could not help but smile as she noticed the look of adoration that Annette was displaying for the boy and shook her head as she wondered how he seemed to effect all the women he was around except her.  

 _Thank goodness._  

"Kyle, you can come with me." Sam glanced at Mike's younger brother, who appeared just as nervous seeing that Mike was indisposed with helping Annette across the water. "Get your shoes off and we'll get going." 

"Thanks Sam." He said gratefully and immediately dropped to the floor, where he started working on the laces of his shoes. 

"Hey Peter," Mike continued to throw about instructions, as only a Larabee was capable. "Can you and Penny take the stuff of those who can't carry their own?" 

"Sure," Peter nodded and immediately began gathering the bags left behind by Mike and now Sam because their hands were full helping the younger kids across the water. "Mike," he added after a moment. "We might put out one of the torches. We may need to make them last." 

"Good idea," Mike agreed as he shifted Annette on his shoulders to a more comfortable position on his neck. She was not heavy but the awkward positioning had unbalanced him a little. "Tommy, you got the duty on the torches." 

Jimmy looked up at his sister. "You're not going to let me drown are you?"  

Elena Rose shook her head. "If I'm going to kill you Jimmy, I'll let you listen dad telling Uncle JD about all his old girlfriends, not leave you down here to drown. Now  _that_  is torture." 

* * *

The cavern seemed to go forever as they continued deeper and deeper into the watery chamber, putting more distance between themselves and the ledge they had stepped off in order to make this leg of the journey. Mike could not help feel a little anxious upon whether or not this was a mistake. Although the walls flanking them in the distance could be seen through the illumination of the torch that Tommy held up above the water level, what lay ahead was so far away that not even the radiating light of the flames could penetrate it.  

"How long have we been walking?" Penny asked, feeling hers arms get tired as she kept the extra load she was required to carry above the water levels.  

"About half an hour." Mike estimated. "I think."

"Maybe there is no way out." Kyle declared, unable to keep the fear out of his voice as his arms remained wrapped around Sam's neck as she pulled him along, allowing the buoyancy of the water take care of keeping him afloat for the rest of the way. 

"Of course there's a way out," Sam said reassuringly. "There's a map isn't there?" 

"I know we had to walk some ways before we got to the gatekeeper and the challenge, whatever that is." Penny offered in case the fear being displayed by Kyle became endemic of all the younger ones.  

"It's probably some kind of a test." Tommy suggested. "Something we have to pass if we want to keep going." 

Mike tended to agree with Tommy's assessment and hoped whatever the challenge might be, it would not be too difficult. He did so want to know what was waiting at the end of this quest because he was fairly certain that it was not a gold mine. Not many had enigmatic clues like this one or was buried so far deep as this place was promising to be that the possibility of mining it would be next to impossible. Whatever Jesse had taken from that old Indian with whom he had bartered for that map was no mine and despite all his anxieties about how this trek might effect his companions, his curiosity was driving him to reach its end. 

Suddenly, he began to hear a sound in the distance, not unlike the ones that Peter had heard when they first discovered this underground lake. Except where Peter had heard the gentle sloshing of water against stone, what Mike was straining to identify seemed more rapidly paced. He began to see the reflection of the waters ahead of him and noted the ripples that were coming not from their direction but elsewhere up the darkened cavern. 

"I hear something," Sam wadded next to him, hanging on to Kyle as she found herself next to Mike, having noticed the same ripples in the water, not to mention the distant sound the others had yet to notice.  

"It's up ahead." Mike nodded and gaze into the darkness. 

"What is it Mike?" Kyle asked in a hushed voice, his eyes darting into the blackness before them and the apprehension of being forced to enter the maw of that unknown was apparent by the fear in his face. Perched on top of Mike's shoulders, Annette's features showed the same fear.

"I can make it out yet," Mike answered and offered his younger brother a little squeeze on the shoulder to assure Kyle that he would not be far away and that nothing was going to happen to him.  

"I think its water," Sam suggested. "But running fast."  

Mike listened again and saw that she was right. It was running water coming from up ahead and instinctively, he looked to the others upon making that discovery. Running water could mean anything, from the strengthening of the non-existent current in the waters they were wading in, to a something more definitive like the source of all this water in the form of an estuary or a channel from a flow deep in the ground. Whatever it was, Mike was not about to let anyone of them go in blind. 

"Hold up." Mike called out to the others. 

"What's up?" Peter made his way next to Mike since he was not hampered in movement with having to help anyone else stay afloat.  

"There's something up ahead." Mike replied. "I'm going to check it out." 

"I'll do it," Peter offered. "I only have your stuff to carry." 

"Its pretty dark in there Peter," Sam declared, impressed that he was being so fearless and willing to traverse that unknown all by himself.  

"She's right," Mike agreed, reluctant to let Peter go in by himself. "Sam, give me Kyle's hand. Can you go in with him?"  

Sam seemed to like that idea better than Peter entering that place all by himself. Like Mike, she felt a certain responsibility for the others and Peter thought inventive and smart was not the most capable person in an outdoor situation. Of course, he was terribly willing to try different things which always impressed her and seemed to have a way of looking at things that was always unexpected. She wondered if he saw everything as something to be broken down and understood as she saw everything as a mystery to be discovered and then explored to the fullest. In that way, they were more alike than any of the other children in the group.  

Sam waded over to Kyle and deposited the young boy into his brother's care for the time being before she started towards Peter who was waiting for her in expectation. As she met his gaze upon her approach, she noted that he quickly averted his eyes and Sam found herself wondering what that was all about. "You ready?" She asked him. 

"Yeah," he nodded swallowing, almost as if he were nervous or something.  

Once again, Sam wondered what was the matter with him before shrugging her shoulders and deciding that he was a boy, who could make sense out of them? "Mike, we could use the light." She turned to the oldest of them, deciding that she would unwrap the enigma of Peter's behavior later  

"Okay," Mike was agreeable to that and understanding why she was asking. "Tommy, hand the torch to Sam would you? We're not going anywhere so I think we'll be safe without it and there's always the spare." 

"Maybe I ought to go with them." Tommy suggested as he moved from the rear of the group, splashing water as he came towards Mike. 

"No, I need you here." Mike replied automatically as he handed the torch to Sam, immediately lighting the path before them. "You're the only one other than Penny with free hands. If something goes wrong...." 

"If something goes wrong?" Elena Rose asked pointedly. "What do you mean go wrong Michael?" 

"If I said." Mike said exasperated. "I meant if!" Sometimes, she could be so infuriating that he could just hit her or kiss her, which ever came first, he found himself thinking with a little smile. 

"That's it," Peter groaned. "If you two get at it again, I'm going."  

"Me too." Sam remarked, throwing Mike a smile that told him that she was wise to the interplay between himself and Elena Rose.  

"Just get going!" Mike grumbled.

* * *

It did not take them long after the duo had left their companions to find the source of all that rushing noise. It stood before them as a formidable obstacle and immediately put paid to the whole notion of whether or not this quest was worth overcoming. The cascade before them met its end at the top of the cavern, rushing water escaping into the lake from a narrow slit in the rock. As Peter and Sam neared it. They could see the force of the water creating a torrent of white foam as it plunged into the pool directly beneath. The roar of it was so loud that if filled the cavern and considering the distance they had to cross for it to evolve from the distant rumbling they had heard earlier, it was rather daunting imagining they would have to cross that barrier. 

"We can't do it." Sam said watching the crushing weight of that water slamming to the ground from that narrow fissure so high up beyond their reach. "There's no way to climb up that wall!"  

Peter could not disagree with her; the walls that led to the passageway were smoothed by erosion from the water. The slick, the moisture that was glistening under the light of their torch revealed an even surface without hand holds or any kind of protrusion that might make it possible to scale it. He did not even have to touch the sides of it to know that the walls of the cavern were almost entirely composed of granite, so trying to make handholds was just as impossible.

"I can't believe there isn't a way up there!" Sam continued to rage. She had become just as caught up in reaching the end of this quest as Mike had been and to see it come to end so quickly was not only disappointing but infuriating as well. "I mean why make a stupid map and talk about a gate if there isn't a way through! It doesn't make sense." 

However Peter was not listening. He was not listening because he was studying that fissure through the rock where the water was frothing out and he realised something as he examined it closely. There were not natural formations. There was just too much precision in the angular lines for it to be a creation of nature. He had studied enough books on building and construction to know that this cascade was not at all what it seemed.  

"It doesn't," he suddenly declared, meeting her gaze. "They wouldn't make a map to the mine if there was no way to get to it. This is the gate." 

"This is a gate?" She looked at him skeptically. "How can it be a gate? It's just a waterfall!" 

"Maybe and maybe not." Peter replied and handed her the things he had to carry for the others. "Here hold onto these a minute." 

"Why?" She questioned even though she took the objects without question.  

Peter started towards the waterfall since that was a good enough answer. "I got an idea. I don't think that this waterfall is natural. See where the water's coming out," he pointed to the fissure above the cascade. 

Sam glanced upwards, it looked like rock to her but then remembering what her father had taught her about looking beyond the surface, seeing more in something than it was. He was right. There was something about the cut of the rock that did not seem like something that she would see formed by wind, heat or rain but rather something that had been carved. "Its man made?" She looked at Peter wanting his confirmation about the conclusion she had reached herself. 

"I'm sure of it." He nodded. "I think that this whole thing here was built by somebody." Peter started to reach the churning waters as he closed in on the waterfall and Sam suddenly felt a wave of fear watching him continuing onward alone. 

"Peter!" She called out. 

"What?" He looked over his shoulder. 

"Maybe you shouldn't be doing this by yourself." She looked at him, trying to hide the concern for his safety. When they had been at the cave earlier, Peter had said that she was brave but at this moment, Sam thought she was the bravest boy she knew. Not just by his willingness to volunteer for this expeditionary scouting assignment for Mike but also he was willing to test himself against that rather formidable looking pool ahead with nothing but a theory. 

As he met her gaze at her expression of concern, Sam suddenly realised that he was afraid but he was doing it because he would not ask her to and because it was required. Sam was struck by how like her father he was in that respect and felt something for Peter that was vague and undefined at that moment. "I'll be okay Sam," he assured her.  

"Alright," Sam responded uncertainly. "Just be careful where you step, just because it hasn't been deep so far don't mean that it won't get that way." 

He nodded in understanding and took care to heed her words as he proceeded forward, making each step gingerly as the momentum of the churning waters increased and he could no longer see anything but the white forth before him and the towering cascade only metres away. Peter glanced back occasionally to see if Sam was alright although in all sensibility, she was probably more alright than he was and more capable of taking care of herself as well if she was not. She was staring after him, with more concern in her eyes than Peter had ever seen and made the young boy smile to himself for some reason. 

Peter treaded carefully and thought the churning water made his approach to the cascade a little harder, the lake did not get any deeper and he was able to make his way right to the point where the waterfall meant the pool below it. The impact of water against water sprinkled the parts of his skin not already soaking with wet as he neared it. For a moment, he was lost in the beauty of the waterfall, admiring not only its awesome might but also the simplistic motion of its downward descent. He allowed the power of it to strengthen him and eradicate some of the apprehension he was feeling.  

Taking a deep breath, he took a step forward and almost felt himself forced to his knees at the fury of the water rushing down on him. The power of it was such that Peter had to force himself to stand up before he was able to go any further. However, he did not encounter the obstruction they thought might be waiting behind the cascade. As Peter close his eyes and outstretched his hands while pushing himself deeper into the path of the waterfall, the less likely it became that the wall in question was going to materialise. Finally, he forced himself all the way through and found that the cascade had come to an end but in front of him was not wall but instead the opening to another cavern. As Peter stared, he saw the shoreline not too far away that led to dry land and beyond it a wider cavern that led into another. The walls of the cavern glimmered with the reflection of the pool and for a moment, Peter felt tempted to go explore the region instead of turning back. However, he knew the others would worry if he did not make an appearance soon and thus forced that thought out of his head and turned back again. 

If there was any exploration to be done, they were going to do it together.

* * *

No one was happier than Mike when they were finally on dry land again. Once Peter and Sam had come back to tell the others of what they had found, the group soon resumed their journey, passing through the cascade that at first led them to believe that they were faced with an obstacle, rather than an opening. Even though they were all soaked to the bone in order to pass through the cascade, it was a sacrifice each of them was happy to make. The torch, which had been put out because of the crossing, had to be lit once again and Penny found herself complaining again as one of her dry linens that had managed to remain dry inside the leather satchel had to be sacrificed for the purpose. 

Light flooded into their new environment as the lace handkerchief started to burn and Mike kept in mind that the piece of linen they had ignited was the last Penny had in store that was not sodden or already used to light the torch already. He hoped that during the progress of their journey, they would discover something that could be used for the purpose or else it was going to be a quest made in darkness. He looked around the cavern and knew that they were very far underground and the possibility of sunlight reaching them would be remote. 

Running his fingers through his hair as Tommy once again took up the role as light bearer, Mike led the way as they moved through the new chamber. Like all the others, the walls were smooth and Mike would not have been surprised if this was once underwater as well for it seemed even out by the erosion of water through the years. There were lichens growing on the walls and the ground beneath them was almost like fine sand, not at all gravely as a cave should have been. However, by now they had learnt nothing about this place was ordinary. 

"I wonder what this place was." Sam mused as her eyes surveyed the terrain they were travelling. 

"It must be old." Adam declared. "I ain’t never heard pa talk about a mine being here." 

"I don’t think it’s a mine we’re looking for." Mike remarked. "We think it’s a mine because that’s what Hank and Jesse said but I think they didn’t know for sure. Jesse got the map from this old Indian who told them that it was a mine, maybe just to sell it. It could be for a whole other place." 

"So how do we know its treasure?" Tommy inquired. "It could be for something else all together." The younger boy pointed out.

The notion clearly disturbed him but Mike put to rest his fears quickly. "No one hides something this well unless it’s valuable. Whatever is at the end of this map, I’m sure its worth finding." 

"You realise that we’re not going to get home before supper." Penny suddenly mentioned and brought everyone’s attention to her. 

"Hey that’s right!" Peter exclaimed as he stared at Mike. "If Penny and I don't show for supper, ma and pa are going to worry." 

"I know," Mike nodded sombrely, realising that some time ago but being uncertain how he was going to break it to the rest of his companions. His father to say the least would not be impressed but Mike reasoned with himself that if they reached the end of the journey and found something extraordinary, then his father would be less likely to banish him to his room for the rest of his youth. "That’s why we got to find whatever’s at the end." He responded, not only to answer Peter’s question but to allay the fears of the others as well, who were no doubt considering the implications of Penny’s statement. 

"It had better be good," Tommy sighed, deciding he could not get into any more trouble than he had when he had almost destroyed his father’s lab. Besides, if he turned back now, he still could not be guaranteed of reaching home in time anyway and the truth was, Tommy had no desire to abandon his friends. When the time came for him to account for himself and his actions, the young boy was not going to be afraid of making that admission. 

"Hopefully enough for me to have a trust fund." Penny said with a smile. "So I can go to acting college and be a great actress like….." 

"Lily Langtree." Elena Rose, Adam, Sam and Peter said in unison having heard this a  _thousand_  times before.  

"Very funny." Penny gave the quartet a sarcastic look. "At least I have goals." She raised her chin in typical Penelope Standish haughtiness. "What do you want to be?" 

"An inventor." Peter declared which was of no surprise to any one.

"Chemist." Tommy added his voice, which was once again of no great revelation. 

"A writer." Adam said proudly. 

"A princess!" Nettie giggled.  

"Columbus." Sam looked at her best friend defiantly because Penny had thought she would not have an answer.

"A soldier like Billy and grandpa." Kyle exclaimed, becoming just as caught up in the momentum as the rest of his companions. 

"I’m going to run the Tavern, like my mom." Elena Rose smiled, having always admired Inez’s ability to do the job that was not customary for women of this day and age.

"I want to be sheriff!" Jimmy laughed.

Everyone looked at Mike when he did not answer. After a moment, the oldest of them let out a sigh and responded. "After today? Alive for my next birthday."

* * *

The door was enormous.

 At least it appeared that way to a group of children. It towered over them, a construct of smooth, polished stone almost obsidian like in its consistency. They could see their reflection in it and for a few seconds after its discovery, could not imagine ever seeing anything like it in the entire span of their short lives. However, when the initial shock of its appearance had faded, Mike Larabee found that they were confronted with a larger issue. The door had no visible means by which they could open it. No handle, no lever, just a keyhole surrounded by five slight indentations.

"We can’t get through." Mike said after he, Tommy and Peter tried pushing it open.

"There’s gotta to be something in here then," Sam stated, refusing to believe that this was a dead end rather like a test of some kind, just as the waterfall had been a test. "Let’s look around." She urged.

"Good idea," Mike agreed, liking the way Sam always cut through the details and focussed on the larger picture.

Although the torch was offering them some light, its radiance was only enough to allow them to see what was ahead and behind them. As a method of illumination, it left much to be desired and made it difficult to see anything until they was almost on top of it. Tommy began skirting the walls of the space they were presently occupying in order to get a better estimation of its size. The room itself into which they had entered before being confronted by that formidable piece of masonry, was as mysterious as the door they found themselves gawking at a few seconds ago. The huge cavern had tapered into this enclosure of space and thanks to the dull illumination of the torch, they were able to learn something of the room.

They found that it was filled with keys.

Hanging from the odd looking hooks in the wall, they came in every description. Heavy brass keys that resembled the contemporary designs of the day, to more bizarre shapes that were almost squarish in shape. They came in wood and iron, in glass and other materials that none of the children, even Tommy could describe. One or two had fallen to the ground and not been replaced which meant they were obviously not the keys that they were searching for.

"This must be the way through." Peter remarked, fingering one of the keys that hung off the large hook. It was shaped in what could only be described as a pentagram and did not at all match the lock that was on the door.

"But there’s so many Mike." Kyle exclaimed, tugging at his brother’s sleeve. "How are we supposed to know which one?"

"I don’t know Kyle," Mike met his younger siblings gaze. "But we’ll figure it out."

Suddenly, a scream tore through the air and pulled away all their attention from the collection hanging on the wall.

"Oh my god!" Elena cried out as she wrapped her arms around Nettie and picked up the little girl who had run to her because Elena Rose was the closest substitute to her mother she could find. In seconds, everyone was staring at what it was that had frightened Annette with such efficiency.

"I think we found the gatekeeper." Penny declared as she stared at the collection of dried bones and withered skin that had once been a man. She did not find the corpse abhorrent because it was hard to picture what was lying before them as being once alive or human for that matter.

 "Look at his bones." Tommy pointed out as he neared the body for a closer look. "It’s all broken."

 It was not just broken, Mike discovered as he came along side of Tommy who had bent over to examine the body more carefully. They were  _shattered_. Splinters and jagged edges pierced through skin in its destruction and Mike could not even imagine the death that would have caused it. The corpse's skull was almost pulverised flat and Mike shuddered wondering the agony this poor soul must have endured to acquire injuries like this.

"What happened to him?" Sam asked with a hushed voice as she took up position next to Mike as they continued to examine the body.

"I don’t know," Mike shook his head and began noticing other things to. What appeared to be the remains of a lamp lay not to far from the body, as well as other belongings. Although the wooden handle was crushed mercilessly, the steel portion of what might have been a spade remained intact, simply flattened out. "I don’t think he was the gate keeper though."

"I think it’s this key." Peter spoke up, more interested in getting through the door than he was by the dead body in the room with them. Elena Rose had taken the younger ones to the far side of the room, having been relinquished of Annette when her brother held her in his embrace. Both Kyle and Jimmy clung to the young woman who had told them sternly to stay away from the body, having no wish for either of them to have that memory in their heads.  

"Are you sure?" Mike looked over his shoulder, suddenly wishing to get out of this room as soon as possible. Something about the corpse before him other than the fact of its existence, made him anxious. 

"It’s the only one that might fit." Peter pointed out because the pentagram shaped key had the five points that were on the wall even though he was unable to fathom what was meant to enter the lock since the centre of the key appeared smooth.

"Okay," Mike nodded. "Try it." 

Peter immediately reached for the key and lifted it off its hook when suddenly something creaked loudly and it took the would be inventor a few seconds to realise that it had been caused by the hook when he had taken the weight of the key. The protrusion of metal heaved upwards and shifted position slightly. 

"What was that?" Elena demanded because they had all heard it. 

"I don’t know…." Peter started to say when the entrance by which they had entered this odd room suddenly produced a door that dropped over the opening and sealed them inside with a loud bang. 

"What did you do?" Mike forgot all about the body and hurried over to Peter, as Tommy and Sam hurried to the door while the younger children squealed in fright and clung harder to their older siblings. 

"Nothing!" Peter stammered. "I took the key off just like I told you I was going to do and I think the hook moved." 

"Look," Penny said placing the hooks under deeper scrutiny, which Peter had failed to do in his eagerness to open the door. "They all go into the wall. They look like switches I think." 

Mike leaned in for a closer look and declared. "She’s right," he agreed. "It goes into the wall." 

"Mike we can’t get out!" Sam exclaimed. "The door won’t even budge when we try to push it." 

"Let’s see if the key works," Mike said trying to calm them all down. He disliked being locked in this place just as much as his companions but there was no reason to panic yet. "Unlock the door, Peter." He instructed.  

Peter nodded and went to the huge ebony coloured door and pressed the pentagram shaped key into place. He tried to fit it in as best he could but it soon became apparent that the key in his hand was not meant to unlock this particular door. A groan of disappointment rippled through them as they saw his lack of progress and Peter turned back to the others, unprepared to give up just yet. 

"We got to try another key." Peter responded automatically, desperate to help since it was his actions that had allowed them all to be trapped in this room, deep beneath the earth with no way out and no one who knew where they were to come searching. "It’s the only way!" He implored. 

"Mike we have to do something!" Elena cried out staring at him. He realised that she was not fearful for herself but for Kyle and Jimmy who were clinging to her trying not to be afraid. Just as Adam was now holding Annette. 

Still uncertain on whether or not this was the proper course of action to take and hounded by his concerns for his friends, because the chamber looked air tight and very soon, they would not be able to breathe. They would die. The idea of death at his age was like some terrible monster in the dark and its power to propel him to make a decision was swift. 

"Okay," he nodded. "Try it." 

Peter turned back to the collection of keys and immediately searched the variety present to find another that might fit the odd lock to their only way out of this room. He felt his heart pounding within his chest as he tried to find the correct one, hoping that the selection of an incorrect one would not compound his mistake. Finally, he rested his choice upon a key shaped not too differently from the one he had attempted to use before. Logic dictated that it had to be roughly the same shape if the odd design of the lock was any indicator of how its key should appear to be. 

The minute Peter lifted up the key from its hook, that same creaking nose followed and this time it was followed by what sounded like sliding rock against rock. It was followed by the sound of water pouring onto the ground. 

"Mike!" Sam pointed to the opening in the wall that had appeared when Peter had lifted the key. Water and lots of it was pouring into the room and having no where to drain, began filling up the narrow space that they were presently occupying. 

Squeals of fright came from all the younger children with even Penny letting out a fearful cry as the water rushed around their ankles and continued its ascent upward. 

"I’ll try again!" Peter said frantically, turning to the wall and grabbing a key before Mike could stop him. 

"No Peter don’t!" Mike shouted but it was an effort in vain.

They could not hear the activation of the mechanism this time because the sound of rushing water filling up the room was loud enough to mask the creak that was produced by it. However, that it had been activated, there was no doubt. Above their heads, the ceiling was slowly starting to lower and the question of how the corpse on the ground had met its end was more or less answered.  

"PETER!" Mike turned a fierce glare on his friend. "TOUCH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!"

"We’re going to die!" Penny started to exclaim and glared at her brother. "I always knew you were going to get me killed!"

"I’m sorry!" Peter sputtered in horror, unable to imagine what to say as he saw the walls continuing to lower, not to mention the double hand of jeopardy they had been dealt with the water that was filling up the room. He was starting to wonder which was a more merciful way to die. Drowning or being crushed to death and was quick to discover that he really could not make the distinction.

"What are we going to do?" Sam was not panicking yet but she was getting close. He could see the fear in her eyes that she was trying to keep under control because she did not want to frighten the others when the situation they were currently in was doing more than enough towards that end already. 

"I don’t know." Mike shook his head and turned to the lock understanding that unless one picked the right key, they would not survive the trap the others would set in motion. The puzzle before him was one he could not understand because there were so many of keys that there could not possibly be any way for someone to pick exactly the right one. The map had given no clues as to which one they ought to pick. How were they supposed to spot the difference between one key from another? It was impossible.

_To face the trial we must think with more than our eyes, see with more than our minds._

Was it more than just words, was  _that_  the clue? Mike ignored the frightened cries of his friends around him as they began beating against the door they had entered to force it open while the little ones started whimpering in fright. Mike paid little attention to all of these, looking to the door that would offer them salvation if only they could unravel the enigma around it. The water had reached their waist by now and although the torch was still breathing, it was also consuming valuable oxygen they would soon need themselves. However, none of this effected Michael Larabee as he approached the lock.

_Think with more than our eyes._

The phrase kept repeating itself in his head as his mind started racing. All those keys with their hidden traps, why? Anyone who walked into this place it was the most obvious way of opening the door. They saw it with their eyes and thus they acted. An illusion, a misconception that because there were keys that must be the way to open the door. Evidence of vision replacing the evidence of the mind. Ignore what his eyes were telling, ignore the keys and the lock and what do you have?

Five indentations, resembling patterns in the rock with no other purpose than to bring ornate attention to the keyhole.

Could it be that simple? Was it actually  _that_  easy?

Mike stepped up to it and placed his fingers into the grooves and pushed.

A loud groan was heard and the entire platform of stone upon which the grooves and keyhole had sat suddenly sunk deeper into the door and what sounded like a click was heard. The door slid open abruptly and the sudden escape of water forced all of them towards the new opening, like driftwood on the edge of huge swell.

They spilled out of the room and found themselves plunging into darkness. 


	6. Lines of Convergence

They were falling. 

Actually that was not right, they were sliding.  

Upon being forced out of the perilous room, which had almost been the place of their untimely deaths, the children were swept away on the tidal wave of water that had occupied the space with them. The onrush sent them all out the newly opened entrance that Mike Larabee had found and sent them through the doorway into what appeared to be a steep and narrow downward slope that disappeared into the darkness, they further down they went. Since he had been the one to uncover the secret of the door, he had been first out when the water had escaped through the door and now, he seemed to be in front of all the bodies that were sliding down the slope. They were like participants on a particularly sharp slide that no one wanted to be on. Behind him, he could hear the screams of Annette and Penny while a litany of curses seemed to be coming from the rest of his friends. 

If it was not for the fact that they did not know where they were going or for that matter, what was up ahead, the entire experience might have been considered fun. However with nothing but darkness surrounding them and this whooshing sound that had built into a powerful roar, indicating the vastness of the chamber they were travelling through, the only coherent emotion that any of them to confess to, was fear. Mike’s heart was pounding as they continued their speedy descent, trying not to let his terror get the better of him mostly because his companions were frightened enough without seeing him panicking. 

"I think I’m going to be sick!" Tommy screamed out. 

"I was sick a second ago!" Penny shouted. 

"I  _know_ ," Peter growled. "I’m telling mom you threw up on me!"  

"What makes you think you’re going to live through this!" Sam cried out just as annoyed.  

"When are we going to stop?" Annette pleaded, obviously terrified. 

Suddenly, their momentum began to slow and Mike could feel the slope starting to even up and felt a surge of relief in thinking that their ordeal was at and end. He had no idea how deep underground they were now and could only guess that it must have been so because of the amount of time they had travelled down this incline. Thoughts of how they were going to get out did not even cross his mind yet since he was presently occupied with the notion of where they would end up and what awaited him there. The idea of what lay at the end of the map started to wither as his heart rate started to slow. 

Until he saw an edge coming up ahead and no way to keep themselves from going over it. 

"Oh hell!" Mike exclaimed. 

The next thing he knew, they were in a free fall. He could the screams become more desperate and singled out Annette’s in his terror as being the most prolific. Fortunately, unlike the extended ordeal the ride on the slope had been, this was no way as lengthy. They reached surface with a loud, viscous splash that did not feel at all water but still served the purpose of cushioning their fall from the height they had fallen. The sudden stop of bodies in the substance created something of a splash upon impacting, sending heavy waves of it in all directions.  

For a few seconds, none of them did anything but remain where they were, quiet and still. The shock of coming to a stop was too soon and for each of them had to acquaint themselves to the idea that they were for the moment out of danger. However, their new surroundings did not seem as pitch black as the former points in their journey. There was light radiating from the walls and the floor, enough to let them know what they had landed within.

"Is everyone okay?" Mike immediately asked and was rewarded by answers to the affirmative even though no one was very happy to be in the slimy pool that had mostly likely saved all their lives.

"What  _is_  this?" Elena Rose asked in disgust, wiping a smattering of it from her face and rubbing a glob of the substance in her finger tips.  

"I don’t’ know." Tommy confessed, fascinated by the black puddle they had landed in so spectacularly. At first he had thought it was mud but it was not. It reminded of treacle but he knew it was not that, not judging from the smell that came from it. He thought it smelt like alcohol in its pure distilled form but knew this was not it. Alcohol was clear and this was pitch black. "Kind of feels like some kind of oil but nothing I’ve ever seen before." 

"Its smells yucky!" Annette exclaimed and it was a statement agreed wholeheartedly by all her companions. "I’m getting out of it!" 

"That’s the first good suggestion I’ve heard today." Mike replied feeling it in his hair and wishing more than anything, they were back at that underground lake.  

"Oh really?" Elena Rose glared at him. "You didn’t think ‘Mike this was a bad idea was not a good suggestion’?" She grumbled, not all happy to be in such a state of filth. 

"What are you complaining about?" Peter retorted. "You’re just covered in this stuff, you should have seen what Penny did to me!" His nose wrinkled in disgust at being covered with vomit and this strange oil as Tommy called it. 

"It’s was not my fault!" Penny declared. 

"Hey and you thought you smelled bad when we blew up my dad’s lab." Tommy chuckled with no sense of shame or sympathy whatsoever.  

"Besides after what you almost did, I think you deserve it." Adam said just as unsympathetically. 

"I’m sorry!" Peter gushed, perfectly aware that his curiosity had almost killed them all and he felt bad enough about it. 

"Leave him alone," Sam said coming to his defense, perfectly aware that Peter was mortified by what had happened. "We were going to go through that place anyway. If Peter didn’t touch those keys, one of us would have." 

"She’s right," Mike agreed. "We got through it in one piece, let’s not start getting stupid trying to blame each other on the details." He used the tone of voice, which indicated clearly to the other children that this was all the discussion he would tolerate on the subject.  

"So where are we now?" Kyle inquired eager to explore this new place even though the last one had been quite frightening indeed. Fortunately, like the rest of the children, the quest to find this treasure was just as intoxicating for him as the older members of the party. Jimmy soon followed him out as Kyle clambered to the edge of the pool and stepped onto solid ground, dripping with the slimy substance. 

"I don’t know." Mike replied somewhat pleased his brother had not started whining to go home because Kyle tended to do that as soon as things got tough. Very soon he and the others began making their move out of the pool themselves and joined the other Larabee child in the group.  

"The walls are shiny." Annette pointed out looking upward. 

"Yeah, I think its phosphorous." Tommy offered, knowing of only one substance that would radiate like this. "It glows."  

"Well at least we don’t have to burn any more of my hankies any more." Penny said clearly relieved. "Not that you could anyway.’ She looked at herself with disapproval. "Everything on me is covered in this icky goo." 

"But you still look better than you normally do anyway." Adam teased and earned a sharp punch from her in the side of his arm. 

Mike saw Kyle and Jimmy starting to get ahead of them as they continued along the crest of the new cavern t hey had been dropped into. The duo was hurrying ahead, with Annette following close by and soon crested the little hill that led from the dark pool. "Wait up!" Mike called out. 

The trio did not answer which only made Mike hastened his pace to catch up with them. He was half up the crest when he realised that Sam was following him closely. They needed not have bothered for Kyle, Jimmy and Annette had not progressed very far once they had peaked the slight hill. All three children were poise at the edge of what appeared to be the most enormous chasm that Mike had ever seen. It stretched a good two hundred feet across to the sheer wall on the other side and there was no way of accurately judging its depth because it was simply too deep to fathom.  

There seemed to be no discernible way to cross the space other than a rope bridge that was strung to the edge not to far along the path that skirted the abyss. It was a construction of ropes and wood and it was so narrow that they would have to walk side by side to reach its end. The sight of what lay before them had dampened the enthusiasm of the three young children who stared blankly at it, appearing not all eager to go first. 

"Mike….." Sam started to say. 

"I know," he agreed with her unspoken sentiments. "We have no choice, we have to go out that way." 

"I was afraid you’d say that." She groaned inwardly, not at all relishing the idea of crossing that fragile looking bridge that seemed to have been there since the dawn of time. She could not picture crossing that expanse without the added image of her falling to her death in that dark abyss and yet there was no way around it.

"We're going across there Mike?" Kyle looked at his brother fearfully.  

"We haven't a choice," Mike tried to explain it so they would understand. "We can't go the way we came and we have to believe that across there is a way out." 

"Oh my god!" Elena Rose exclaimed upon cresting the hill and being greeted with the same sight that Mike had come across only a few seconds. "James Darien Wilmington, you get away from that ledge!" She called out anxiously, not all pleased to see her younger brother so close to the edge of that horrifying deep chasm. The effect of her voice on such high ceilings was like a thunderous boom and the sound tore through the air like a crack of thunder. 

Jimmy looked at his sister somewhat startled that she would use that tone of voice with him. For a minute, he mistook her for his mother and instinctively backed away, conditioned to obey that voice without question. "I'm okay Ellie." Jimmy responded after his surprise had worn away. "I'm being careful." 

"I don't care!" Elena Rose replied just as automatically. "I want you at least ten feet away from there."  

"Go on," Mike looked at the younger boy and then turned his gaze at Annette and Kyle as well. "Same goes for both of you." 

"How long do you think this has been here?" Peter asked as he joined them, once again fascinated by everything he was discovering in this strange quest they had embarked.  

"I don't know." Mike shrugged. "It looks pretty old though." 

"Maybe we should look at the map." Tommy suggested, giving the rope bridge an unhappy expression of disapproval, hoping silently to himself they would not have to cross it.  

"Yes, maybe we should," Penny swallowed hard, reaching for the parchment had set this entire situation in motion, secreted in her satchel, kept safe from the mud and muck that they had been immersed in a short time ago. With filthy fingers, she reached in and brought out the parchment into the cool air inside the cavern. There was still enough phosphorus on the walls for her to read it without a torch and she unrolled it and started reading. 

"Please say there's another way around," Tommy started to chant under his breath while looking up to the sky he could not see to make a more silent entreaty to the deity that held his beliefs. "Please, please, please." 

_The Chamber of Openings was a test of the mind_

_Now across the Cavern of No Begining and No End  _

_Will you find the answer to the test of courage._

"I swear if I get to the end of this stupid quest and find somebody I am going to beat the crap out of them for all these stupid clues!" Sam roared. "Why can't they be more sensible?" 

"They don't want to make it too easy for us, Sam." Adam said as a matter of factly. "Don't you know that before you get the treasure you got to prove yourself? Like Jack and the Beanstalk!" 

"This is not knowing how to keep your cow when someone offers you magic beans!" She declared. 

"I wonder if dad ever tried that con?" Peter joked and found Penny nudging him in the ribs because they were discussing something important. Besides, daddy was just too good a con man for anything so stupid anyway, or at least that was how he told it. 

"Look," Mike broke in, weary of this bickering and inching closer and closer to the notion of abandoning this quest, even though he made no mention of that fact to his companions just yet. "We have no choice, we have to go over that bridge." 

"Mike its dangerous." Elena Rose tried to convince him. "The thing has been here probably forever. It may not be able to support us. It could snap." 

"It could but the alternative is for us to sit here and wait for them to come find us because unless you noticed something I didn't Elena, I did see a way of getting out the way we came." He said sternly. He did not wish to be so pointed but sometimes she had a tendency to be rather stubborn and in this instance, she was frightening the others.  

Elena Rose did not speak but fumed in silent annoyance because he was very correct. She had seen no way to go back the same path they had taken and so it was left only to follow the one that lay before them to its natural conclusion. Not to mention, she stung at the sharpness of Mike's tone with her, feeling a little guilty because she realised that perhaps it was not entirely undeserved, she knew herself well enough to know that she could sometimes speak without giving her words proper thought.  

"So who gets to go?" Adam spoke up and the group went silent again since none of them was particularly eager to volunteer.  

Mike let out another deep breath, knowing that there could only be one choice. He would not allow any one else to go so he braced himself to take the step forward when suddenly he heard Tommy speak.

"I'll go." 

Mike looked at him sharply. The young man had already started towards the bridge, certain that he would receive no arguments on this matter but Mike was not about to let him do something so perilous without discussing it. "Tommy, I'll go." He offered instead. 

"No Mike," Tommy looked over his shoulder as his neared the edge. "You have to get the others out of here in case something goes wrong." 

"Something goes wrong?" Sam exclaimed, adding her voice to the mix. "Tommy if something goes wrong, you'll be dead." 

"Sam!" Mike hissed before regarding Tommy again. "Tommy are you sure about this?" 

Tommy glanced down into the abyss and felt the fear crawling up his spine but intermingling with that apprehension was also an underlying sentiment of certainty that would not allow him to back away and give into Mike's request. Mike had the ability to get them out of here, he knew that. Throughout this entire adventure and perhaps through most of their lives, Mike Larabee's talents seemed was best served coordinating them. Mike may not have Tommy's knowledge in chemicals, he might not possess Sam's gift to see trails, Elena Rose's practical sense, Penny's flair for dramatics, Adam's gift for storytelling or even Peter's ability to know how things work but he had something special onto itself. He could take all their talents and fuse together into something extraordinary, binding them into something invincible. With Mike around, they were a team. If Tommy allowed Mike to cross the bridge and he should get hurt, robbing them of his leadership, then none of them would escape because they woul d become separates at a time when they needed to be one most of all. 

"Yeah Mike," he nodded as he placed both hands on the rough hessian ropes that made up the bindings of the bridge and stepped onto the wooden slates that made up its floor. He put his weight upon it and felt the strain in the wood and he inched more of himself onto it. Tommy kept his eyes faced on the other side of the chasm, telling himself that looking down was not going to help but hamper his progress even further. All it would do was make him afraid and falter his resolve and he refused to let his friends down by allowing fear to get the better of him. He inched further away from solid ground feeling the bridge sway a little as he stepped onto it.  

"Be careful Tommy." He heard Penny's voice behind him.  

"Don't worry," Tommy gulped, keeping his eyes fixed on the other side. "I'm not going to be anything else." 

His heart was pounding so loudly in his ears as he made every nervous step forward, feeling the wood creak beneath him as he moved along. Despite the swaying of the bridge the further he progressed across it, the construct seemed to be holding well enough and Tommy started to feel a little better about making it across. Keeping a firm grip on the ropes, Tommy continued walking and becoming less and less afraid until he saw the edge of the ledge he was trying to reach drew closer. Feeling a swell of relief flooding through him, Tommy finally stepped onto the narrow ledge that ran along side the sheer face of wall and saw that it tapered into the an entrance in the rock. He was tempted to explore it but felt that he ought to wait for the others. 

"Its okay!" Tommy called out. "Its safe!" He urged his companions. "You can come across!"  

Although none of the others seemed any more eager than he to make the crossing, Mike soon organised the group into making the journey. Despite their fear, Mike managed to convince the younger ones like Kyle and Annette to go first mostly because they were lighter and would put less strain across the wooden bridge. After much convincing by Elena Rose, Jimmy was also coaxed into joining Tommy on the other side. 

The older children began the same journey soon after with Mike going first mostly because he was the one of the oldest and in size, the one with the most bulk. If he could make the crossing without any difficulty, it ought to be easier for the others who lighter than him. Mike walked carefully taking measured steps for most of the journey and letting out a sigh of relief as he reached the other end without anything tearing or breaking. No sooner than he made it across, the others followed in his wake and finally only Sam was left. Like himself, Sam often took the rear, allowing the others get to safety before she thought of it for herself.

Whenever Mike saw her behave that way, he realised it was no wonder why Chris Larabee and Vin Tanner got along so well. They thought so much along the same lines it was scary at times. It was why he could tell despite that same unflappable expression on her face that infuriated his father to no end when Vin displayed it, she was still scared of making the crossing. It occurred to Mike that she might have been a little afraid of heights, just like snakes made him want to head for dynamite. Mike suddenly wished he could join her on the bridge to help her across, if that was indeed was making this so hard but knew the added weight would be a risk they could not take.  

"Hey Sam," he started talking, trying to take her mind off the journey. "What do you think is on the other end of this map?" 

"Hopefully a way out." Sam spoke, concentrating on keeping her attention on the faces of her friends and not the great distance beneath her. "Mike, we have to start thinking seriously about getting out now. We've almost gotten killed once already, maybe even twice. I don't want to think our luck is going to hold out." 

"Yeah," Mike nodded somberly, having to agree that Sam was right about all this. 

"After everything we've been through?" Penny said aghast. "How can you even think about giving up?" She looked at Mike and Sam with distaste. "I mean, we've almost drowned, got pounded by moving walls, gone down a slope that's so deep underground that no one will ever find us and to top it all off, we just had to cross that! Not to mention...." 

"Oh great, here we go again," Peter started to say. "Not the...."

 "I had to sacrifice my good handkerchiefs!" She exclaimed and Peter found he was not alone in when he let out a groan of exasperation as the others soon joined him. 

"Jeez Penny," Sam opened her mouth to say when suddenly, there was a sudden crack of sound that seemed to freeze the moment and the next thing she knew, everything beneath her gave way with shattering crunch.  

"Sam!" Mike watched in horror as the ropes holding the bridge together snapped when Sam plunged through the broken slats of the bridge floor. The force of her weight through the wood had been powerful enough to snap already worn fibers from their attachment in the rock edge and Mike could only stare as he saw the bridge crumble into a neat arch before slamming hard against the stone wall of the cliff. She let out a little scream as she impacted against the rock, clinging desperately to the wood with both hands, in no position to reach the dangling strands of rope that lay only inches away by might as well have been a thousand miles by her reckoning. 

"We got to help her!" Mike step forward when Elena Rose grabbed him by the belt. 

"Mike calm down!" She shouted, aware that he could get so caught up that he forgot that he was just as imperiled as the person he was attempting to save. "You need to think clearly about what we're going to have to do." 

No such restraint held Peter back because he was at the edge staring down at the abyss and seeing Sam clinging on for dear life, her terrified eyes staring up at him as she tried hard not to start screaming, even though she was perfectly justified.  
Mike nodded and hurried to his side. The older boy dropped to his knees and stared into the darkness below trying to assess the situation even though there was no much new information to ascertain from what they had already seen so far.  

"We gotta help her!" Penny cried horrified. "You gotta hang on Sam!" She called out to her best friend. "We're going to get you out of there!"  

"Hurry!" Sam responded just as frantically. Her hands were turning white from the pressure of tryign to hold on. The entire weight of body was pulling at her arms and the strain was biting at her muscles, coaxing her to let go. She clamped her eyes shut, too terrified to look down and not wanting to see if she was forced to let go. 

Peter was thinking fast. He glanced at Mike Larabee and knew that the older child was tryign to decide what to do. Peter's feelings for Sam allowed him to plot a course of action much quicker and he immediately sat up right and called out.  

"I need a knife!" He demanded. 

Mike sat up just as abruptly, realizing that Peter had an idea and at the moment, he was not arguing the point.  

"I got one!" Kyle said meekly. 

"You got a knife?" Mike looked at him as his little brother produced a small pocket knife which Mike recalled seeing Kyle use to whittle whenever their father took the time to each him. "You know you're not supposed to carry that around unless you're with pa!" 

"Hey!" Elena Rose swatted Mike on the back off the head. "This is not the time." 

"Sorry," Mike said embarrassed, wondering what on earth was running through his mind as he took the knife away from Kyle and handed it to Peter. However, did he give his brother a look and added under his breath. "We will talk about this later." 

Peter ignored all this and practically snatched the blade away. He examined the remnants of the bridge and realised that the Sam could not reach any of the more secure ropes because she needed both hands to keep form falling. He stared into the depths of the abyss and felt his stomach lurch at the thought but knew there was no other choice. To save her life, there was only thing to do. 

Someone was going to have to go down there. 

Taking a deep breath, he grabbed one length of robe that was dangling freely and tugged at it, ensuring that it was secure and made that it was more than capable of holding his weight. It had snapped where Sam had broken through and when extended would hang just close enough to reach her. As he tied the rope around him, Mike's eyes widened with realization. 

"What do you think you're doing?" Mike demanded. 

"What do you think?" Peter answered, not at all about to debate this issue as he cut free another strand of rope from the demolished and suspended construction of bridge. He had to ensure that it too was moored to safety and was capable of carrying Sam's weight when he brought it to her. After giving it an experimental tug, he looked at Mike once again. "I need you to lower me down. We got to get this rope to her."  

Mike did not like this. He felt he ought to be the one to go but he was heavier and that would make it harder to pull him back up. He stared at the younger boy, conflicted for a moment before finally calling out. His voice escaped like air trapped in his lungs that he had to expel to catch another breath. "Tommy, Penny and Adam get over here." He ordered abruptly, still staring at Peter.  

"I can't hold on much longer!" Sam cried out once again, skirting the edge of raw panic that Mike knew she was keeping under control in a Herculean effort not to make things any worse.  

"What do we do Mike?" Tommy asked instantly, sounding not all like a child but very much like his father the doctor, just before he stuck a needle in your butt.  

"Grab that rope." Mike ordered as he organized the others to get a grip of the rope around which Peter was using to lower himself down to Sam. "We have to do this very carefully." He instructed. "Elena, you keep an eye on the others and make sure they don't get in the way. We do this fast, okay?" He glanced at the others and saw them shake their heads in affirmative. 

"Ready when you are." Mike said to Peter, who nodded and took another deep breath and stepped to the edge as the others secured their hands around the lifeline that would keep him from plunging to his death, the way he was trying to prevent Sam's. 

"Be careful Peter." Penny said feeling a surge of sibling affection. He was her twin brother and had been there at her side all her life. Penny could not imagine Peter not sitting across her at the dinner table or running off together with grandma Maude to all those places there were not supposed to go, or not even sharing ice cream with momma when they went to visit her at the Emporium.  

"I will." He said firmly and decided he would not think about being scared. Dad always said that no matter what, a gentleman never showed his real face when going into a tense situation. As he neared the edge and prepared to place his life into the hands of his friends, Peter could not help wonder if his father had a saying for every occasion. 

"Sammie I'm coming down." Peter told her.

  
"Don't call me Sammie!" She cried out, her voice breaking, indicating the tears that were starting to come. "Only my daddy can call me that."

 "Its okay Sam," Peter said reassuring her, knowing that her outburst was because she was terrified out of her mind. "I'm coming down to get you!" 

"I don't need to be got!" She wailed back.

"Sure you don't," he said with a little smile, admiring her ability to joke at a time like this. "I tell you what, next time one of us falls off a cliff, it can be your turn to come get me." He said as he started down the side of the smooth wall. Looking up, he saw Mike in the lead, keeping control of the rope while the others lent their strength to the task they were attempting to accomplish. They worked together in almost synchronous harmony, watching each other carefully as they lowered Peter lower and lower, past the tattered remains of the bridge, until he reached Sam. 

"I can't let go to reach you." Sam said frantically as she saw him dangling near her. 

"I know," Peter answered. His own voice trembling. He was terrified but he was not about to fail her. "I'm coming to you."  

Slowly, he pulled himself across towards hers, grabbing the wooden slats until he was able to slide his arm through a crack of wood to keep himself in position as he tied the robe around her slender waist. Peter could see the rips in her hands were splinters were tearing into her skin. Her nails were dug so deep into the wood that blood was seeping out from under them from the tear of her skin. She was biting down from the pain but her terror at falling to her death had frozen her grasp on her only handhold. 

"Thank you Peter." She whispered, looking up at him with the most perfect blue eyes which stabbed at his heart, each time he saw a fresh tear roll past her lashes onto that perfect golden skin. "Thank you for coming after me."

"I'd go anywhere for you Sam." He said softly. 

Instead of barking at him again as he fastened the knot around her waist, she met his gaze but said nothing in turn, choosing simply to stare as if she had made a strange discovery in the last few seconds as Peter secured the rope around her waist.

"You can call me Sammie." She replied with equal emotion. 

"Okay," Peter called out to Mike, not knowing what to say to that and deciding for the moment, it was something that could wait until later before he gave deeper thought about it. "Let me go." 

Mike nodded and looked over his shoulder at the trio behind him. "Grab the other rope." He instructed. He had no wish to simply leave Peter dangling there, relying on only the strength of old hessian fibers to keep him alive. Besides, Sam was lighter than Peter so he had to believe that Tommy, Penny and Adam were capable of managing. However, he need not have worried for Elena Rose who had been keeping an eye on the younger children, felt confident enough to leave them alone and lend her strength to this endeavour.  

The line tensed in his hands as Peter's weight pulled the rope downwards once the others relinquished their hold on it in order to pull up Sam. Mike felt the muscles in his jaws tightened as he forced himself to provide reinforcement to the lifeline to which Peter clung. He could tell that Peter had been terribly frightened when he volunteered for the ordeal of saving Sam's life. However, Mike sensed that the same forces that were at work in his heart for Elena Rose also existed inside Peter for Sam and so he held on, determined that he would not let it end for either of them in this dark place. 

"How you doing Peter?" Mike found himself asking. 

Peter who was doing multiplication tables in his head as he hung suspended over the chasm, looked away from Sam as she was being hoisted upwards by the others, to give Mike a thumbs up sign that indicated that he was doing just fine. However, he could not deny that he was doing everything possible to keep himself from looking downward and becoming sick to his stomach at where he was at this present time. Of course, he held no regrets and though he was still plenty scared, he knew that if Sam made it to top and he did not, he would still be grateful because she would be alive.  

"I'm okay."  

"Hang in there baby brother." Penny sang out. "As soon as we get Sam out you're next." 

"Well I'm not going anywhere." He deadpanned, displaying the trademark sardonic humor that seemed so indicative of Standish men.  

The children worked hard in such perfect rhythm in their efforts to pull that very soon Sam had reached the edge and Penny immediately let go of the rope to help pull her over it. Grabbing her arm as Sam struggled to clamber over the smooth edge, the strawberry blond dragged her the rest of the way. Sam dropped to the sand, never more relieved to feel its comforting presence beneath her after what had almost happened. When she sat up and caught a breath, it was almost taken again by the warm hug she received from both Penny and Elena Rose. 

"Don't you ever do that to us again, Samantha Christine Tanner!" Elena Rose gushed happily.  

"We almost lost you!" Penny retorted. "Then I would never get to see that owl's nest you promised to show me!"  

"Thanks?" Sam grinned happily before her expression changed and she turned back to the edge. "Peter!" She exclaimed, reminding them that one of their number was still incomplete.  

She need not have worried because the boys were already straining to pull Peter to safety. The three girls immediately hurried to join them in their effort, determined to bring Peter back after his bravery at rescuing Sam. In a matter of minutes, they had successfully completed the task, bringing Peter to the edge of the ledge as they had done to Sam only a short time before. This time it was Sam who hurried to her savior to help him over the edge, with his sister following closely.  

"You were so brave!" Penny embraced him hard, so proud of what he had done and at the same time grateful to have her brother back with her safe and sound. "I am so proud of you!" 

"Quit it!" Peter groaned as she planted a kiss on his cheeks, wishing she would not get so mushy in front of the other boys. "I'm fine already. Stop with the kissing!" 

"Thank you Peter," Sam said once Penny had removed herself from him. A similar show of affection had followed from Elena Rose, not to mention numerous slaps on the back from the rest of his friends for his courage at performing a rescue mission that would have been terrifying for an adult, let alone someone their age.  

She did no react as the others had. She did not slap him on the back or tell him how grateful she was other than a simple acknowledgement of her thanks. However, what he saw in her eyes was worth more than that because for the first time in both their lives, she was looking at him and really seeing  _him_. Not the person who was one of the children of her father's best friends, or a childhood companions with whom she had grown up with but him, Peter.  

"Thank you for saving my life." Sam said once again, feeling a resurgence of the emotion that had first made itself known to her when they had been at the cascade, when he went off to face its dangers alone because he wanted to keep her out of harm's way. Suddenly, she understood why it was her father's eyes seemed to light up whenever her mother walked into the room and why she herself felt so warm and happy inside her soul whenever she saw her parents riding into the setting sun together on one of their sojourns alone. She stared at Peter and suddenly an insight flashed so brightly in her mind that she was rather astonished by its potency. She wanted more than anything to go home at this moment. She wanted to rest her head on her mother's lap and ask Alex to explain why she felt this way. For the moment however, one gesture could convey her feelings better than any other.

Sam leaned over and kissed Peter lightly on the cheek. 

The young man stared at her in shock and his response was so different from when it had been his sister that the gesture that he had no words to express the moment. Mike Larabee knew the look well and to save his friend the embarrassment, he chose to intervene to guide them past the awkward moment. 

"I think we've spent enough time on this stupid ledge," Mike spoke up. "Let's get out of here." 

However even though they had turned away, Sam and Peter were still thinking about each other. 

* * *

When Hank and Jesse Young arrived at Cullens Ridge, they knew that someone had already been there before them. The tracks they found scattered around the area were easy to read and were even easier to follow. The brothers had not embarked upon the quest to retrieve their property alone, having brought along the gang that had ridden at Hank's side more times than he could count. Although he would not say it out loud, he trusted his men more than he had trusted Jesse. They were tried and tested in battle while Jesse was not. Even though Jesse was his blood, Hank knew that his patience with his brother was reaching its limits. Until a year ago, Hank had not even given Jesse a second thought after leaving home but the young man had tracked him down after being booted from that fancy school that Hank's money had helped their parents put him through.  

Jesse had been a thorn in his side from the moment he began riding with Hank. The other men did not like him much and Hank could not blame them, Jesse did not ride well, he was lousy with a gun, was bookish and tended to know everything, which mean nothing at all. Most of these character traits might have been tolerable if Jesse was not such a whiner.  

"They're already gone!" Jesse cried out as they stood at the foot of the ridge. There was something of a trail leading up the side of the slope but it culminated at the mouth of a cave that was so small that if they were to enter it they would have to squeeze in at single file. 

"I can see that Jesse." Hank said through his teeth. As it was, he found this whole idea of a map rather stupid and he had no idea why it was following through with it. If it not for the fact that the ridge in the map did appear to be Cullens Ridge, Hank would have given up the idea altogether. Unfortunately proving that it existed had fired Jesse's desire like nothing else and his sibling was determined they find what was at its end. 

"Well we have to get after them!" Jesse snapped, not caring that he was making his brother look foolish in front of his men, even though it had not passed Hank's notice whose temperament was darkening by the minute.  

Hank noticed his men frowning at Jesse, trying to understand why he would tolerate such behavior from a brother and could not begrudge them their feelings. He himself was fighting the urge to deal with his brother more harshly and soon returned with a response, directed at alleviating Jesse's tantrum not to mention showing his men who was really boss around here.  

"We'll camp here." Hank said once they reached into the clearing that overlooked the trail where possessors of their map had began the climb up the ridge. 

"Here?" Jesse looked at him incredulously as if he had gone mad. "Why the hell are we camping here? We've got to go up there and find them!"

"Were you or weren't you the one who told me that there were traps or something for those who tried to find the mine?" Hank looked at him critically and noticed that his men were keeping a close eye on the proceeding now, perhaps aware that Hank was about to show Jesse a thing or two about ordering him around like some dumb cowhand instead the leader of his own gang. This was a man who had ruthlessly cleared the land for the cattle barons and had made them all rich doing it. He was respected by those who rode with him too much for them to stomach his being ordered around by a snotty kid, even if that kid was his brother. 

"Yeah...." Jesse remarked with a nod, disliking where Hank was going with this.  

"Then we ain't going up there without the map because we'd only get our selves killed." Hank said firmly. 

"But we can't let them get what's ours!" Jesse exploded. "It ain't right!"  

"It ain't right," Hank steadied his rising temper. "But that's what we're gonna do."  

"You're a coward!" Jesse spat viciously and crossed the line that until now had been the only thing that had kept his brother from doing what was needed to be done. Before he knew what was happening, he felt Hank's thick hand around his throat, slamming him into the slope that marked the beginning of the path up the ridge.  

"Jesse, you're my brother and I ain't about to shoot my own kin but you best remember that I am in charge around here and what I say goes. I've put up with your smart mouthing more than any man should." Hank said hissing in his face as Jesse struggled unsuccessfully to pry those fingers from around his neck. "We do things my way or I'm gonna cut you loose and you can see if your smart mouth is gonna be any help to you then." 

Jesse glared at his brother and then past him to the men who was sniggering silently to themselves as he received his comeuppance from Hank. Jesse swallowed the bile of humiliation down his throat and make a secret promise to make them pay some day, make them all pay. "Let me go." He asked contritely, his eyes shifting to Hank, pleading with his older brother by his frightened eyes not to make him beg to be released in front of the others present. 

Hank read the expression on his face easily enough and still had enough feeling for his brother not to make him endure that kind of humiliation even though the discipline had been long coming. He unclenched his fingers from around Jesse's throat and heard the younger man gasp deeply with a sharp intake of breath once his lungs were free to do so. Hank watched dispassionately as Jesse staggered to his feet, clutching his throat and fixing the glasses on his face back to position. His men appeared as equally satisfied by his actions as he had been and he guessed that they had been waiting for him to put Jesse in his place for some time now.  

"Now," Hank said after a moment, speaking in a cool tone that showed no indication that just a few seconds ago he had held his brother's scrawny neck in his hands. "We will wait here because whoever's got our map is gonna come back once they're done claiming our property. We will be waiting for them when they come back this way again and we'll let them know just how we treat thieves. Is that good enough for you Jesse?" 

Jesse peered through his glasses at his brother, still massaging his throat from the chokehold he had just received. "Fine." His voice escaped in a raspy croak. 

"Good," Hank nodded and turned away feeling Jesse's eyes burning into his back and having this strange premonition that one of these days, he was going to have to do the world a favor and just a put a bullet in the boy. 

* * *

Not too far away, Billy Travis and Lilith King watched the scene with growing apprehension. It was bad enough that the men pursuing the children were of questionable reputations but now it appeared that they were not above turning on each other like a pack of wolves fighting over the last tasty morsel of food. With them making camp in front of the only means up the ridge which was undoubtedly where the children were headed, since Billy's tracking skills told them that they could have only gone up that way, Billy had no idea how he and Lilith were going to get past them. 

"Damn." Billy said under his breath as he turned away from the scene and retreated into his hiding place behind a large boulder, where Lilith was presently waiting for him while complying with his instructions to keep her head down. 

"What's wrong?" She asked quietly, making sure she spoke softly enough to remain anonymous to the men they were trying to get past. 

"They're blocking the way into the ridge." Billy complained, trying to decide what to do. If his father and the rest of the seven were here, this would be easy. A distraction at the right time would allow him to get past those men without any difficulty. However, at the moment it was just the two of them, one if he did not count Lilith, which he was happy to do so if there were any other way. He wanted her as far away from here as possible but she had been right about what she had said when they were at the creek, Billy needed her help. 

"Is there no other way in?" She questioned fearfully, feeling the intensity of her concern for the children they had grown up with and taken care of deepen. 

Billy raised his head and studied the ridge before them and could see in the steep hills and treacherous craggy terrain that that there was not. Besides, he did not want to stray too far off the path taken by Mike and the others. If they were following a map then there would be very specific instructions where to go and his blithely utilizing another route could lead him on a path that would never cross theirs until it was too late. "Not that I can see." He said grimly.

  
Lilith thought quickly to herself and wished she was not being forced into the position she was now. However, she cared as much for the children of the seven as Billy did and she did not want to see them hurt. Ever since she had found the Book of Shadows, so long ago in her youth, Lilith had regarded the ancient manuscript with something of fear and awe. She knew that there was much power in it even then although at the time her efforts to use it had been disastrous. However as the years tumbled along, Lilith took a more prudent course in learning its use, never attempting more than she was capable of handling. At her present age, she knew that she had a great deal of power under her influence and while it might not be enough to bring the children back from wherever they were, it was more than enough to get Billy and herself past those men.  

"Billy," she said after a moment, unsure of how he would receive her suggestion. While he had been most supportive of her powers as children, they were older now and he was a West Point cadet who had seen much of the world. Too much that perhaps what she practiced might be considered arcane by him. "I can get us past them." 

He turned to her and met her gaze immediately, knowing precisely what she was talking about. "Are you sure?" He asked quietly. "I know you don't like to use it." 

"I don't," she admitted, not all about to lie about that but there was no other way and they both knew it. "But we have to reach Mikey and the others." 

"How will you do it?" He asked automatically. He could never believe that she was a witch or anything remotely evil. Billy could not believe that any creature as magnificent or as beautiful as  _his_  Lilith could be considered an apparition of sin simply because she was able to make wonder out of a world that lay beneath the surface of this one.  

"A little bit of glamour." She said automatically. 

"Glamour?" He did not understand. 

"We'll just walk past them." Lilith explained. "They won't notice us." 

"You mean we'll be invisible or something?" He tried to grasp the idea of it and knew that unless he was of the craft, its comprehension would always be beyond his understanding.  

"No," she shook her head, placing a hand on his cheek at his willingness to let her try. Lilith could not have loved him more than at that moment. "It's just a little spell around us that will make them not notice us." 

"Whatever," Billy shrugged. "As long as it gets us to that cave." He pointed to the top of the path that was barely visible to most. If it were not for Vin's teachings, Billy would have hardly known what to look for to find it. 

"That cave?" Lilith stared at the opening he was pointing out rather dubiously. It could hardly be called an entrance and appeared more like a fissure in the rock. It was fortunate that she was of slight build while Billy was lean and fit for it would be a tight squeeze for either of them to make it through that narrow space. She could understand why Hank had chose to wait it out at the bottom of the ridge. With the man's considerable bulk, there was no way in heaven or earth he would make it through himself. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on one's perspective, the children would have had no difficulty passing through it. 

"Yeah," Billy nodded. "Its a little small but I can think you and I can manage." 

"You want to hope." Lilith said skeptically.  

"Relax," he offered her a little grin. "I'm open to a little snuggling between the two of us." 

Lilith rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. "I thought you grew up at West Point." 

"I did," he said mischievously. "Just not where you think."

She swatted him lightly on the shoulder and then bade him to remain silent. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the spell she had to conjure in order to descend the veil of illusion over herself and Billy in order to pass Hank Young's gang. Taking a deep breath, she took his hand in hers and began whispering softly in words that always-fascinated Billy when she spoke them even though he could not began to fathom their riddle and how they did what they managed to do.

_I call upon thee Goddesses of Old_

_To Branwen, Rhiannon and Keridwen _

_Grant your discipline the oldest of the arts_

_The one to which was taught Titania and Mab, Queens of Faerie _

_I, Lilith, namesake of she who came before Eve_

_Possessor of the Sight and the old ways_

_Bestow upon me and he who is my favored beyond Beltane _

_The veil of illusion that allows us to part the mist unseen_

Billy watched her chant those strange words and there was something in her eyes that was older than time and for a moment, his mind opened to possibilities so far beyond male understanding that he was left awed in its wake. There was no unearthly light or percussive demonstration by the forces of nature, just a slight shift in the wind and a strange coolness that rested on his skin which allowed him to know that something had changed. Even if he could not see it for himself, Billy just knew that it had worked even if he would not have proof of this until he walked through the Youngs' camp. 

Lilith rose to her feet, not at all looking like the girl he was pledged to marry in less than a week but someone older. It radiated off her skin like the glow of a firefly at night. She smiled at him, taking his hand and appearing so different from the impetuous young woman who called herself the Clarion's star reporter only hour before.  

"Come." She said simply.

Billy did not question her because he had seen this before and its power to captivate him was just as potent now as the first time she had summoned the three goddesses for their aid. He wondered who it was that was with him, when Lilith led him through to the camp where Hank and Jesse were waiting for Mike and the others, ready to spring upon helpless children like wolves on a gathering of young fawns. Billy was certain that it was not Lilith that walked with him but someone else, someone that only existed as that mysterious sparkle in her eyes that most people save him never truly understood. 

Nevertheless, his hand instinctively remained on the gun that was in his holster as she held his hand and guided him through their ranks, completely unafraid of discovery. The men around him and Lilith seemed in a daze, seeing right through them as they walked past. The gang went about their business, making coffee, smoking their cheroots and basically keeping a vigil for their intended prey. Within seconds, Billy and Lilith were making their way up the side of the ridge and towards the mouth of the cave. By the time they had disappeared into it, Lilith had returned to him and the goddesses who had been of so much assistance would retreat back into the mists once again. 


	7. Visions of Tomorrow

It was well after supper and past point where Mary ceased to be angry with her two sons for being absent during the evening meal and had transcended into parental fear for their safety. They were not disobedient children by nature, either of them. Even though they tended to get into trouble, what child did not? They never went out of their way to seek it out. If there was one thing that the family demanded of its members, it was their presence at supper. If Chris who spent his days working out on the Lucky 7 ranch could make it back to town to sit at the head of his table, Mary felt that there was no reason on earth why anyone else in the family should be remiss.

As she sat in the parlor glancing anxiously outside the window at intervals of a few seconds, she knew that she had good cause for worry. Mike knew how important dinner was to the family and if he was not here, then there had to be a good reason. Even though she tried focussing on the dress she was making for Sarah, it was no good. Eventually her mind kept drifting back to the absence of her sons and Chris who was seated on his favorite chair, trying to read his book was in even worse condition than she. After all, he had lost a child before and though he had a rather relaxed attitude to child rearing, nothing made him tense more than their safety. 

Sarah was playing with her dolls in the corner of the room, noting the strange behavior of both parents with growing curiosity. She watched her mother’s gaze keep shifting to the window while her father could not seem to keep his eyes on the book that was splayed open before him.  

"Mommy, where’s Kyle and Mikey?" She finally asked. 

The question made Mary sit up in her wing chair with a deep sigh laced with tension. "I don’t know darling."  

"They had better have a good reason for being this late," Chris grumbled. 

"I’m sure they do." Mary replied, always defending her boys, even when they were in trouble and deserved it. It was the journalist in her she supposed, always playing devil’s advocate. 

Suddenly the door knocked and Mary forgot about everything she was saying and glanced anxiously at Chris, the hope in her eyes apparent. Chris however, was not so deluded into believing that whomever was at the door was either Mike or Kyle. If it were the boys, he thought, they would not knock. They would come bounding into the house as they always did or during instances when they were in trouble, slinking in quietly, trying not to draw attention. 

Mary went to answer it and Chris could not help listening closely as he heard her footsteps approach the front door followed by the creak of the door being swung open. The voices that filtered through did not indicate Kyle or Mike but were nonetheless just as familiar. Mary returned a second later, giving his aural recognition and visual confirmation.  

"Ezra." Chris rose to his feet. "This a social call?"  

The one time gambler appeared clearly disturbed even though to all except Chris he was calm and deliberate as ever. Very few people could see through Ezra Standish’ façade, Chris was one of them. 

"As much I would love for it to be so, alas it is not." Ezra responded. "I was wondering if Masters Kyle and Michael were here?" 

"No," Chris shook his head seeing the fear in Mary’s eyes double and then quadruple. It almost matched the cold fear in his own heart. "They haven’t come home yet. Missed supper too." 

"As have Penelope and Peter," Ezra answered automatically, displaying a very visible frown. "Julia is worried and I have to confess feeling some trepidation myself. They are children after all and inclined to embroil themselves is as much discourse as possible but the hour is late even for that kind of indulgence." 

"Well they all went to the creek together." Mary suggested. "Maybe we better find out if the other children have come home yet." 

"Yeah," Chris agreed with that course of action. "Mary, you stay here in case they come back. Ezra and I will go see Nathan. If Tommy isn’t home, then we’ll split up and head out to Buck’s, JD’s and the ranch."  

Mary hated being left at home for such a purpose but she knew Chris was right. If this was just a false alarm and her children were simply late home, then she wanted to be here when they arrived and let them know just how much fear they had put into their parent’s heart before their father got a hold of them. 

"Alright," Mary nodded. "The minute you hear….." 

"I’ll let you know." Chris returned as he and Ezra were already making their way towards the door. 

Mary watched them go and prayed that this was nothing to be worried about. She heard the door slam as they left the house and felt singularly chilled until she turned her attention towards Sarah and swept her little girl up in her arms. 

"Mommy needs a hug." Mary replied as she carried Sarah and wished the warm embrace she received from her golden haired daughter were enough to allay her fears.  

*********

 

It did not take Chris and Ezra very long to find out after arriving at the Jackson residence that Rain and Nathan were in a similar stare of worry regarding their eldest son. Deciding that it was best that they split up in order to cover more ground, Chris was soon riding towards the ranch to let find out if Samantha was home with Alex and Vin, while Ezra did the honors with Buck and Nathan with JD. Despite the explanation they were giving themselves that their children had found something of interest beyond the creek whose exploration had reached this late hour, none of them could shake the feeling something sinister was at foot. After the lives the seven had led, there were enemies who could still surface and shake them out of the complacency instilled by years of domesticity. 

Chris dismounted his horse in front of the Tanner home, just as the front door swung open. Vin Tanner paused when he saw Chris but the expression the former gunslinger had seen in the tracker’s features was enough to indicate that something was troubling his best friend. Nowhere could he spot any remnants of that unflappable expression as Vin strode towards him, securing his gun belt around his waist as he completed the journey. 

"Chris." 

"Vin." 

"What brings you out here at this time of the night?" Vin inquired, even though he had a rough idea. Chris was wearing the same worried expression as he was.  

"Is Sam home?" He asked, in no patience to waste any time and in truth, Vin did appeared in pretty much the same mood. 

"No." Vin said tersely. "She missed supper and she still ain’t back yet. What about Mike and Kyle?"

"Not a sign." Chris retorted just as abruptly and had confirmed the suspicion that wherever their offspring might be at this time, they were not alone. "It’s same with the others too." 

Vin peered at him from under the brim of his slouch hat. "Others?" 

"Penny and Peter are missing, so is Tommy." Chris explained. "Ezra’s riding over to Buck’s and Nathan to JD’s but I think its safe to assume that they’re all together." 

"Alex is going crazy," Vin glanced at the house and appeared especially annoyed because he did not wish to leave his pregnant wife when she was worried like this but Alex would hear none of it. Their daughter was out there and until she was found, nothing would appease the lady doctor. "She’s mighty worried. Sammie can be a pain in the ass but she knows better than to stay out this late." 

"Yeah," Chris agreed with a slight nod. "Mike’s the same." He did not want to assume the worst but at the moment, there was little evidence that indicated the contrary. "We’re meeting up in town once everyone is rounded up," he continued speaking. "Assuming that we are right and none of the kids have come home." 

"I’m going to the creek." Vin replied. "It’s a place to start." 

"Alright," Chris nodded, thinking that this was a good idea because it might give them some idea of where to begin when they returned to the others. "It’s on the way." 

********* 

It did not take them long to arrive at the creek, which was only a mile or two out of town. It was the kind of distance children could cross without taking their horses and of this fact Chris was extremely grateful because if they had gone wandering off somewhere, they would have had to do it on foot. This narrowed the margin of where the seven should start looking, considerably. The creek sat on the outskirts of the Dunne place and the creek where the children enjoyed their summers was an extension of the one that ran past Nettie’s old home. When JD and Casey had married, they had built a new house mostly to accommodate the children that would someday arrive and Nettie remained in her own home until the day she died.  

Vin had not been back at the creek since. 

However, fear for his child made this an exception and both men dismounted their horses, hearing gentle sloshing of water against the embankment and the sounds of nightlife in the form braying of bullfrogs and chirping crickets. There were no sounds that might indicate children. Fortunately, it was a full moon out so there was enough radiance for them to see with some measure of clarity. Chris was more familiar with the children’s habits here to know where they normally set down their belongings when they came here to enjoy the day. With Vin alongside of him and terribly reminiscent of old times when they were peacekeepers in this town, they began scouring the terrain almost immediately. Both armed with their unique sense of vision. 

"Someone else was here." Vin said spotting enough signs in the dim light to know that someone on horseback had been here recently. "On horseback." He continued to study the tracks, seeing the children’s most prolifically but there were fresher prints.  

"Look," Chris pointed at what appeared to be a piece of paper struck to the side of a tree. The contrast of white paper in the dark was stark indeed and Chris had seen it almost immediately. Without wasting time, he crossed the space between it and himself in a matter of seconds, with Vin following closely behind. 

"What is it?" Vin asked. 

Chris recognised the knife that had pinned the paper to the tree. It was the same penknife he had bought Billy for his birthday when the boy had turned seventeen. With a surge of hope that the children were with Billy, Chris immediately grabbed the handle and dislodged it from the bark. "Its too dark to read it," Chris retorted as he struggled to make sense of the words etched in the paper. "Vin you got a light?" 

Vin wasted no time producing the added illumination that Chris needed with the matches he carried on him to light a cheroot when needed. The light from the match cast an amber glow over Chris’ face as Vin held it close enough for the man to read what was on the note. Chris’ eyes moved steadily across the page and the entire process took no more than a few seconds before the match had burned itself down and Chris crumpled the paper in his hand. 

"Damn." He said under his breath, uncertain whether or not he ought to worried or furious. At this moment, he could not say for sure. 

"What?" Vin stared at him, needing to hear something about the welfare of his daughter. 

"Our children," Chris said barely containing his anger. "Have found themselves what they think is a treasure map and have gone hunting find it. Billy and Lilith have gone after them because it seems the damn thing belongs to Hank Young." 

"Hank Young of the Young gang?" Vin was almost afraid to ask. 

"The same." Chris growled. "Billy is hoping to get to them before Hank does." 

"Shit!" Vin swore as Chris started back to the horses. "I’m gonna kill her…." He started muttering furiously, unable to imagine what was in Sam’s head that she would embark on such foolishness. Oh who was he kidding? She took after her parents and that was all that needed to be said on that subject. 

"Not before I have a few choice words to say to my son," Chris retorted. "Assuming that the Young’s don’t get to him first." 

Despite their verbal claims of anger, both knew that if their children were found unharmed, they would probably be too grateful for that alone to be concerned about how events had led to the kids being in such danger.  

***********

 "What does the map say now?" Tommy asked Penny once they had cleared treacherous walkway that had hugged the cliff they had just left with Sam barely making it out alive to join them. Like the rest of the group, the need to reach the end of the quest did not seem nearly as important as it had been when they had first set out. Tommy suddenly wished he were home. He wished he was where it was nice and safe, where there were no such things as rooms filled with traps, slippery slides that took you deep into the earth or where there was little danger of being falling to your death from a cliff the size of Everest.  

They had left the ledge were still walking down the narrow walkway but somehow the walls were luminescent, glowing with the same powdery substance as before. It looked in its own way, very much bathed in sunlight coming from some unknown source. The walkway was surrounded by water on either side and as they paused for a moment, the atmosphere of playful adventure had all but vanished for fear and a potent desire to go home. Although none of the younger children had started to complain, Mike could see the fear in their eyes and hoped that wherever this led, it would also provide them with a clue on how to get out of this place. 

"A way to go home." Elena Rose grumbled, deciding that she did not wish to see what else this place was going to throw at them. After seeing how close Sam had come to dying, she was of the opinion that their luck would not know protect them indefinitely and eventually someone was going to get hurt seriously or worse yet, they were going to find themselves faced with a challenge they could not overcome. 

"I hate to say it Mike," Peter met his gaze. "I don't want to sound like a wet blanket but I think we should try to get out here." 

Mike let out a deep sigh and nodded in agreement. "You're right. We should get out of here. I'm sorry I dragged you all into this. I thought it would be an adventure. All it's been is one death trap after a number." 

"Michael," Elena Rose let out a sigh and came to him. Placing her hand through his, she offered him one of those smiles that were always capable of melting his insides like honey. "You didn't drag us, we came along with you because we wanted to know what was at the end of the rainbow too. I know I complained a lot but I wanted to know." 

"So did I." Sam added her voice to the mix. "Mike I wanted to know too. We all did. Just because it's turned out to be more than any of us imagined doesn't mean we hated it. In a weird kind of way it was fun." 

"Yeah Mike," Kyle said to his brother. "And you let me come. You never let me come before." 

"Me neither." Annette said eagerly. "I always get left at home but this time, I got to go. I don't care that we didn't find any gold." 

Mike had to swallow the lump in his throat because he was coming entirely too emotional for his own good. "I don't know who's crazier. Me for talking you into this or you for following me." 

"Hey," Penny who had been reading the map while they had been engaged in this discussion suddenly spoke up over their attempts to salve Mike's guilt for bringing them to this place. "I think we don't have to worry about giving up." 

"What do you mean?" Tommy looked at her since it was he who inspired her to assess their current situation as far as that ancient piece of parchment was concerned. 

"I mean," she met their gazed. "I think we're at the end." 

"End?" Adam said looking around him trying to ascertain what that meant. As far as he could tell, there was still something of a cavern ahead and not to mention any signs of treasure or gold or anything that might indicate a purpose for the arduous journey they had made. "I don't see any signs of goal." 

"Read what it says," Mike said enthusiastically, fired up with the anticipation of knowing that their trials and tribulations had been for something. 

The children gathered around Penny as she cast her eyes back on the words preparing to recite in that alien language that had guided them throughout this journey. 

_The test of mind has been proven_

_The test of courage has been fought_

_Now lies the test of faith in the cavern of twin lakes_

_Believe in the water and be shown the prize_  

"Twin lakes?" Jimmy looked to his older sister who was much more clearer about such riddles. "What does that mean Ellie?" 

"This." Sam pointed to the narrow vein of water surrounding them on both sides.  

"This isn't a lake." Penny said dubiously. "Its not even a pond. More like a little stream." 

"I don't think its meant to be so literal," Adam replied, frowning at Penny who read the words and yet could not understand the meaning. He hoped she surpassed that flaw if she wanted to become a real life actress someday. 

"Besides," Mike retorted. "That things is ages old, once upon a time, this might all have been apart of a lake." He pointed out. 

"But what about the rest of it." Tommy asked. "A test of faith." 

"A test of faith in the water." Elena Rose repeated, walking to the edge and staring at the pool of water. She could see the bottom and thought it was not very deep, it was still very clear. Her reflection stared back at her and Elena took a deep breath before dropping to her knees.

 "Rose," Mike demanded. "What are you doing?" 

"Don't you see?" She said with complete understanding and no traces of fear. "It's a test of faith, our ability to believe enough so that we can see the prize." 

"So how do we do that?" Peter asked. His was a world of science, of fact and figures. Conquering the natural world was simply a matter of understanding, though he was still young enough to toy with the idea, he was fast growing into an age where the world of fact was taking the place of the one steeped in fiction and fairy tales.  

"Easy," Elena grinned, cupping her palms and dipping both hands into the water. "You drink it."

"Wait a minute!" Tommy exclaimed, having a real problem with that. "You can't just drink the water, you don't know what's in it."

"That's why it's a question of faith Tommy," Elena Rose answered and she never sounded more like Inez Wilmington than at that moment. 

Mike did not want to stop her from continuing, not when he saw the light of understanding burning so fiercely in her eyes. He had never seen her so passionately determined a thing and Elena Rose had been born the world's greatest doubting Thomas. However, she was also practical and not easily moved and anything that could touch her faith to such an extend had to be given its proper due. On that alone, Mike believed her.

"Are you sure?" He found himself asking even though nothing would stop her if she was determined. He loved her but she could be damned stubborn sometimes. 

"Yes," she smiled at him just before she scooped up the water and took a mouthful.  

It was surprisingly fresh despite its present location so far under the earth. There was a just enough tang in the taste of it to indicate that there probably some of minerals present in its texture. Elena Rose felt the cool run down her throat and found herself singularly refreshed by the initial sample. Inspired by the fact that she had not fallen over and died from poisoning, she took another drink and noticed the anticipation on her companion's faces as they watched her. 

"Well its good water." She shrugged and leaned down to take another scoop when suddenly she caught sight of her reflection once again. For a moment, Elena Rose thought her mother was behind her and turned around sharply, only to see Mike staring at her in concern. Confusion rising, she glanced at her reflection again and then realised that it was not her mother that she was seeing but herself.  

As a grown woman. 

She was taller than Inez and it appeared that she had something of her father's height. Although she always wore her hair in a pony tail, the reflection in the pool saw her hair flowing loosely around her shoulders, appearing wild and tousled. She sought for a word to describe herself and could only bring one sentence to mind. 

Pretty. She was pretty. 

Swallowing hard, Elena Rose trembled as reached for the water again, allowing her fingers to send ripples through the surface and feeling her soul draining out of her fingers into the reflection in the pool..... 

********

_"Rose!" Mike's voice cut through her consciousness._

_Elena could feel his words slice cleanly through her disorientation, lifting the veil of mist over her mind. However, clarity did not return to her upon opening her yes because she found herself in an entirely new place._

_"Mike?" She sat up terrified as she saw the plains of open desert surrounding her. It was desert, the likes of which she had never seen in her entire life. It ran on forever in every directions, the dunes were like water in their textures, smooth and rippled as the wind blew. Heated air rose from the burning sand, creating waves of shimmering in the distance that earned the name mirage for those who mistook the illusion for water. The pure white sand glared back at her almost as sharply as the prevailing heat. When the flow of the desert did come to a respite, Elena Rose could only gape in open wonder and astonishment at what she was seeing._

_The Great Pyramids._

_She knew what they were because Miss Audrey had shown them pictures in school. The Pyramids of Giza, her mind reminded her as she continued to stare at their monolithic splendor. The pictures had done them no justice. Whether or not this was a dream, Elena Rose could not say for certain but they were as magnificent as the civilization that had built them thousands of years ago. Towering edifices stood against a pristine blue sky and seemed to capture the soul with an ancient song that spoke of great kings in a time when the world was young and there was achievement in every human endeavor._

_"Rose, talk to me. Are you alright?" She heard Mike's firm but tender voice in her ear a second before she felt his hand around her waist and shoulder helping her to her feet._

_"I'm fine," she nodded mutely, her eyes still too filled with the sight of the pyramids stretching across the Giza plain to pay much notice to him. "Where are we?" She asked somewhat dazed._

_"Where are we?" He exclaimed looking at her incredulously._

_It was at this point that Elena Rose had blinked long enough to take a good look in his direction and what she saw was even more astonishing than even the pyramids. For a moment, Elena Rose thought she was staring at Chris Larabee. The man before her and he was a man there was no doubt about that in any shape or form was the image of Chris Larabee. However, while he looked like the Chris Larabee she remembered, a man who never ceased to look like anything but the ruthless gunslinger that had drifted in town so many years ago despite the years or how settled he became, Elena could see something different. It was most telling in the eyes._

_He who was before her was a different man altogether. One who had not suffered unimaginable loss or seen the things that Chris Larabee had. Looking at the person before her, especially into those familiar green eyes speckled with gold, she realised that this was the Chris Larabee her father had known, before the years had changed the man. The entity before her was young, confident, exuding raw sexuality with such potent force that even though Elena Rose did not understand its nature, could certainly feel it. As he smiled at her with the face of a god, she felt her knees weaken._

_"Hey!" He caught her again as she started to stumble. "I think this heats getting to you." He said squinting instinctively at the noon day soon a brief second before he bent down swept her up in his arms. "I think you need to rest in our tent. I knew this was a bad idea. You should be in Cairo, getting pampered with luxury at one those fancy English hotels not be out here on a dig with me, especially this close to the baby coming."_

_Elena almost fell out of his arms._

_"What? Baby?" She stuttered and then took a look at herself and noticed that under the loose fitting cotton dress she was wearing was a swell on her belly not unlike that of her mother's when she was close to delivering Jimmy. The shock robbed her of speech for a few seconds as Mike continued to talk._

_"Yeah I know that you've been with me on digs ever since I come out here but Egypt is not home. You can die of a dozen different things before the sun goes down." He said gently. "Look, I'm almost done here. All I need to do is uncover one last cartouche and then we can go back to Cairo and I can start cataloguing for the university. I promise you Rose," he kissed her gently on the forehead. "After the baby is born, we'll go home and I can take up a teaching position in one of the local universities. What do you think? Wouldn't you like to the wife to a Professor Larabee?" He grinned at her._

_Elena felt her head swim and as she closed her eyes and felt the world spin around her once again. She vaguely heard Mike calling her but his voice grew distant once again...._  

**********

 "Rose!" She heard Mike's voice again only this time it was not the concern call of a man worried about his (god she could not even imagine at this point) pregnant wife but the childhood friend that she had known all her life. "Talk to me Elena!"  

Elena realised she was being shaken when she opened her eyes and stared at him. He was her Mike again, the one she had always remembered. In fact, all her friends were around her, staring at her in concern. "I know what this is." She managed to say. "I know what the treasure is!" 

"I don't care about the treasure!" He shouted. "I care about you? Are you alright?" Mike had to hear it from her before he dared to believe it. For the briefest instant of time, she had faded away and he had no idea where she had been, even though her body was staring aimlessly into her reflection in the pool. 

"But you have to care." She smiled at him, images of what she had seen imprinted in her mind and strengthening her with the hope of all possibility. "Its not gold Mike, or anything as stupid as a mine. It’s the future." 

"What?" He looked at her confused. "What did you say?" 

"I saw us." She beamed even wider, no longer as frightened now that it had sunk into her. "I saw us and our future and that we have a future together, you and I." On impulse, she embraced him hard and smiled radiantly. "When I drank the water, I saw our future. That's what it is, some kind of window that lets us see ahead." 

"Really?" Mike said with a hushed whisper. "What did you see?" He saw the wonder in her eyes and burned to know. 

"Enough," she embraced him again. "Why don't you try?" She gestured towards the pool. "You need to see it Mike."  

Mike looked at the pool uncertainly and then stared into Elena's eyes. What she saw in that place it had taken her radiated from her as powerfully as the glow inside the cavern. Behind him, the others were waiting on in anticipation, wanting to know but still too afraid to try for themselves. They had come all this way and Mike would not rob them of the pleasure he saw in Elena's eyes if it meant him trying it out for himself. 

"Okay," he nodded and was quickly rummaged through his satchel and produced a cup he had with the things his ma had packed for lunch during their visit to the creek. Mike let his gaze sweep over the others once more before dipping the cup into the water and filling it to the brim. He stared at it for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and deciding to himself that if Elena could manage it, he sure as hell could to. Holding to his lips, he began drinking quickly. By the time, he had drained it of its contents, his mind swirled and he was gone....

*********

 

_Elena was screaming._

_"Rose!" He cried out._

_"Calm down!" He heard the calm voice of a man with a decidedly foreign accent telling him. Mike blinked twice and three times and found himself inside a tent, just seconds before a hand tightened around his with a powerful surge._

_"Mrs Larabee," the man spoke. "We're almost there."_

_"God it hurts!" Elena Rose Wilmington screamed in agony. Her cries of pain snapped Mike's attention to her and for a moment he did not recognise the woman beside whom he was kneeling as she lay on the cot. Covered in perspiration, her belly heaved and her face was contorted in pain but as he stared into her eyes, he knew without doubt she was his Elena Rose, just older. He guessed she was somewhat older than Lilith but not quite as old as his mother. The curve of her belly told him immediately why she was wracked with such agony._

_She was birthing a child._

_The doctor did not seem American and as his confusion mounted as to why he was here and why Elena Rose was delivering a child in a tent when suddenly he was struck with the realization that it was his child, she was giving birth to. Mike could not breathe but he did not have a chance to descend into blind panic because he was reminded of the situation when he heard her scream again. Mike stared at her, at the hand fisted around hers and saw the band of gold that matched on his finger and on hers and knew that she was his wife. Strange how he had always known that she would be even as a child and then to see it for himself in this reality._

_The doctor, a man of obviously foreign extraction was working hard beneath the blanket that covered her and Mike could only stare at Elena Rose in wonder, thinking that she had become more beautiful then he had ever imagined she would be, even like this._

_"You can do it." He whispered softly. "I know you can."_

_"Oh Mike!" She started to weep. "I'm trying!"_

_"You can do it." Mike said with absolutely. "You're my Rose, you can do anything."_

_"Push, Mrs Larabee." The physician ordered once again. "Just one hard push!"_

_"One more baby," Mike continued to speak, unaware of where this strength was coming from but knowing that for her, he would learn anything, be as strong as she needed. "Just one more."  
She nodded and blinked, tears running down her face and sweat glistening across her skin. Mike noticed a cloth in a basin of water in the corner of his eye and reached for it. He squeezed it the best he could with one hand and toweled the moisture of her face cooled he brow. _

_"I love you," she whispered._

_Whether he was eleven or all grown, there was never any doubt in his mind about that and Mike answered without hesitation. "I have always loved you."_

_With that, she bore down and started the exhausting exercise of pushing, her hand clenched around his in a singular effort as she forced her body to do what was required. Eventually even that was not enough and she had to let out a scream of determination that was long and guttural, torn from her with so much agony that Mike thought his heart might shatter because he could not stand to hear her cry out like that. However that scream ended abruptly with one that was weaker, a little more strained and the first one made by he who uttered it._

_"Congratulations," the physician grinned broadly as he produced a small wet form, wrapped up in a blue blanket, whimpering plaintively following its sudden arrival into the world. "Professor and Mrs Larabee, it appears you have a son."_

_Mike could hardly breathe when he saw the tiny creature that was placed in Elena's weary arms after she had recovered a moment later. "Oh god Mike," she looked up at him with tear filled eyes after regarding the precious life she was cradling. "He's beautiful."_

_Mike smiled because he was._

_"Hello," he heard Elena coo into the babe's ear. "Hello Christopher."_

_Somehow to Mike, it made perfect sense._  

************

 

Sam was next. 

She did not fear the future, she was dying to know about it. To have all the questions answered that she had been pondering of late so when she chose to drink next, it was not just a glimpse into her future, it was the question answered on how she would get there.....

*************

 

_"Sammie!" She heard Peter's voice screaming behind her. "Slow down for god's sake!"_

_The first thing that Sam realised when she had some semblance of coherence was that she was not on the ground. How this was achieved was beyond her understanding but she knew this was so as evidenced when she looked around herself and realised that it was not land around her but rather clouds and air. Her eyes widened upon seeing nothing but the wide expanse of blue sky far closer than anyone had any business seeing. Though they were high, it was not warmer the closer they got to the sun but rather colder. She wondered briefly how it was Icarus could have plunged into the sea when the sun burned less in the sky instead of hot like that ancient fable once claimed._

_Below her, she could see the landscape. Tracts of green and brown, stretching across the horizon like a sea that had no end. There were no ships on this ocean but rather the tops of houses, peaks of mountains, the apex of tall green giants and herds of cattle and other livestock that moved across grazing land like a swarm of insects moving in unison. It was beautiful in a way she had never imagined it could be. On the ground, things seemed tiny and insignificant but seeing it from this vantage point, with all things placed in a tapestry of design rather than in separate pieces as people had always expected it to be, she understood so many things._

_"Ease back on the throttle!" Peter called again._

_She looked over her shoulder and saw not a boy her age, but a man speaking with Peter's voice. She could not see his eyes because they were hidden behind the kind of goggles that Will Jefferson, the blacksmith, wore when he was working hot iron. However, Sam had no doubt that it was indeed Peter because the hair, the voice and the manner was all his._

_Sam dropped her eyes and saw the strange lever she was handling.. When she pulled back, the strange contraption with the spanned wings, which had allowed them to make this incredible journey in the sky, it would twist one way and another depending on how she guided the lever. Although she was terrified out of her mind of bringing them crashing to the earth, she could not deny that there was nothing less than exhilaration journeying through the sky in this manner. If this was her future, then Sam decided she could do worse._

_"It's not quite as good as a Heath Parasol!" Peter shouted over the roar of the wind and the sharp drone of the engines that powered the propeller in front of the machine. "I used their design but I'm sure I could do something better. I just need to get back to the workshop again!"_

_Sam had utterly no idea what he was talking about although she seemed to be managing quite well keeping them aloft rather than crashing rather spectacularly into a mountain or worse yet into the ground. Perhaps part of the vision that she was seeing her allowed her this one skill or just maybe this was what she was born to do and she was taking to it like duck to water._

_"Its wonderful!" Sam screamed in euphoria and meaning it with every fibre of her being._

_"Well I'll keep building them and you can keep flying them!" Peter laughed, clearly delighted by her expression of joy._

_"You built this thing!" Sam exclaimed looking back at him momentarily in wonder. "Its incredible!"_

_"Its nothing compared to what I'm gonna build for you Sam!" He returned happily. "I'm going to build them until you can touch the moon!"_

_Somehow she did not doubt it._

**********

"Peter," Sam exclaimed excitedly when she finally snapped out of the vision quest she had been journeying. "You have got to try it! You should have seen what I saw! It was so amazing!"  

Peter could well believe it if the glimmer in her eyes was anything to go by. The thrill in her face was too overwhelming for him to refuse her desire to have him join the ranks of those that had taken a drink from this strange portal into the future and captured a glimpse of the people they were destined to be in the years ahead. Taking the cup from her hand, Peter swished it through the clear pond before raising the dripping receptacle to his lips and allowing the cool water to slide down his throat…. 

*********

_He did not know what he expected but he certainly did not expect this._

_There was a mirror on the wall of the room he suddenly found himself within and when he stared at it, he knew he was staring at his own reflection, even if the image was contrary to anything he might have perceived. Everything was the same, same eyes, same dimpled cheeks inherited from his father but his hair was no longer dark gold but rather thinning into gray. He looked around the room and found the construction unlike anything he had ever seen. Most of the room was glass and in his office, he spied rolled up plans, models of strange objects that looked like birds but were clearly man made. At the corner of his desk, there was a picture of what he thought was Sam but like him, time had changed her too. The photograph itself was nothing like what he knew of his own time. Its presentation of the image was next to flawless and it had captured Sam’s likeness almost perfectly and not just Sam but Penny’s as well and a number of his friends including one of what appeared to be his father. At l east he thought it was his father. It was not the image of an old man as Ezra Standish should be if Peter was old but someone in his late twenties._

_My son._

_If he thought the marvels of what were inside his room was astonishing enough, what appeared outside the window was enough to take his breath away. He saw them taking off a strip of dark road, soaring into the sky with ease. Fan blades whirring away as they rolled along the path before them and then finally escaping to the sky. All of them had the same words emblazoned across their polished steel sides._

_STANDISH AIR_

_"It is such an honour to see you Sir." The voice of someone who had been speaking to him the last few seconds despite his attention being elsewhere finally filtered through his mind and Peter faced front._

_The young man was in his early twenties if that. He was no one that Peter recognised from his past but he was staring at Peter with clear adoration and the words he spoke started to register even though Peter could not understand what he was talking about._

_"I’ve read all your papers on an engine that utilises chemical propellant and I believe you are right that is the only way that we will ever leave propellers behind and create a revolutionary form of air travel. I am sure that this is the way to make rockets a reality. I know that you conferred with Doctor Jackson on much of it as you often said but the idea that escaping the stratosphere with that kind of velocity makes the mind swim. I have been working on the problem myself and I have had limited results."_

_He was expecting Peter to answer and the boy trapped inside a man’s body thought furiously as to what he should say even though he had no idea what the visitor with the thick accent was attempting to say. Deciding that in doubt it was always best to go with something that his father was fond of saying._

_"You are merely working out the details of the game, the rest will come with practice." Peter answered and hoped it would not sound too foolish._

_However, he need not have concerned himself for no sooner than he had said it, the young man across the desk from him broke into a smile. "I will endeavour to practise as much as I can. Thank you Sir."_

_With that he rose to his feet and bade his goodbye._

_Peter did not know who the young man was but gathered he would find out in the future that was to come._

_However, even then there was some things that would remain a mystery to him even then and his visitor who went by the name of Werner Von Braun would on that very next day, take one of his planes back to Germany. Von Braun would work hard on his idea of rockets, given life by his conversation with famed aeronautic engineer Peter Standish. He would work out the details of the game and build the V2 rocket, which almost brought London to its knees in World War 2. All the while, wrestling with his conscience at working for the Nazis and keeping alive the dream he had shared with Standish alive for the next five years until liberated by the American army at the end of the war. When he returned to America again, Von Braun would revisit his dream of rockets and pioneer the space age for his adopted country._

_And April 27 th 1969, he would put Neil Armstrong on the moon._  

********

 "I know what the future holds for me." Penelope Standish declared when her turn came. She was going to be a famous actress like Lily Langtry and travel the country in a glamorous lifestyle that would leave everyone talking about her forever. With total confidence at knowing what the future had decided for her, Penny took her turn without fear because whether or not she knew it herself, despite her bold words, she would be always be someone who changed the world to suit her.

 As it should be.

*********

  _All was as it was when she heard the crowd cheering._

_The audience before her was applauding with almost rapturous delight as she stood gaping at them in astonishment. To her surprise, Penny found that she was rather overwhelmed by the applause. She had always thought that when the time came, she would be ready for the stardom and adoring fans but now that the moment was upon her, she found that none of her fantasies was anything like the reality. Bright lights shown on her and she could see smiling faces everywhere._

_In the front row, she saw her mother and father, clapping for her. Peter was there too and Sam as well. In fact as her eyes moved across the faces though older, she knew without doubt to be her best friends in the world, she felt herself swell with pride knowing that they would be in her life even when she had achieved her dreams. Given a choice between them and her ambitions for herself, Penny could not say for certain which she would choose although at this time, soaking the adulation of the crowd, it did not seem fair to ponder the question._

_"Brava!" Sam was clapping the loudest and calling out, defying conventionality as always._

_Looking at herself, Penny realised that she was garbed in an elegant dress that seemed the costume of the some blue-blooded aristocrat and through the fake jewellery and finery, she wondered what was the role she had played. At the wings, the rest of what appeared to be her cast were also sharing their adoration for her with the crowd by the smiles and waves they were sending in her direction. She wished they would come out and join her but then supposed she was the star and this was meant to be her moment._

_She was holding a bouquet of roses and the fragrance filled her lungs adding to the unreality of the moment as she saw more flowers being thrown to the stage in single stems, littering the floor after a time. Penny knew it was going to be like this, she knew she was going to be famous. None of this had been any different then how she had always imagined._

_"Ladies and gentlemen, Penelope Dunne!"_

_Penny’s eyes widened in shock as she stared immediately at the announcer who had made the statement._

_Dunne? Her name was not Dunne!_

_As if to answer the question, the man continued speaking._

_"The writer of the production ‘Gambler’s Fortune’, Adam Dunne!"_

_She could only stare as Adam stepped out of the wings, waving to the audience as he came next to her and slid his arm around her waist. He looked nothing like the boy with the glasses who was utterly no good at using a slingshot. Instead, she standing to a handsome man with thin almost wire framed glasses, looking terribly dashing in his black evening suit._

_"Are we married?" Penny managed to say in his ear._

_Adam smiled at her, obviously assuming she was joking. "I suppose you want to divorce me now that you’re a big star."_

_Penny could only stare and decided from then on, never to assume anything where fate was concerned. It had a habit of surprising you most unexpectedly._

************

"What did you see Penny?" Adam asked when she finally gain coherence enough to realise she was back in the present once again. 

Penny swallowed visibly. "You wouldn’t believe it even if I told you." 

"I want to try!" Kyle declared and Penny was never more grateful for the distraction because her mind was still reeling from what she had seen. She had never even considered a husband. After hearing about how her mother had come to the west on her own, established her Emporium and built a life for herself well before she finally married daddy, Penny had more or less decided that she wanted her life to be that way. However, now she had learnt that not only was she going to have a husband, it was going to be Adam. 

"Brace yourself," Penny advised as she saw Kyle leaning down to take a drink from the mystical pool. "Its gonna be some ride." 

***********

_He heard gunfire._

_Kyle almost ducked until he realised that it was not coming at him but was rather a far away sound in the distance._

_Coherence to his surroundings brought with it an intense biting cold that made him hug himself in reaction. In front of him, his horse snorted its dislike of the weather. It was raining, with droplets of water dribbling over the brim of his hat. Kyle wiped the rain from his face and took in where he was._

_He knew that he was not at home._

_The landscape around him seemed peaceful enough for the moment but there was bodies everywhere. They were covered in mud with dead eyes that stared into the sky seeing nothing. Blood stained the earth where they had fallen and large craters had formed in some places where it appeared as if a great claw had scooped up the earth and sent it in all directions. Like the limbs that had been ribbed from the corpses, creating a macabre tapestry of death, blood and mud. In his entire life, Kyle had never seen anything so utterly terrifying._

_"Poor souls." Someone said next to him._

_Kyle looked over his shoulder at the rider on the other side of him and realised it was Billy. Billy who was older and a little gray but nonetheless very much the brother he adored._

_"Billy." Kyle exclaimed softly.._

_"You haven’t called me that in years." Billy looked at him with mild surprise. The uniform that he was wearing was not the uniform of a Union soldier but it was a Calvary uniform because like himself, Billy was sitting astride a horse. In fact, Billy was leading what appeared to be a lot of men in uniform astride on horseback, staring at the misty green terrain ahead of them. "I guess considering what we’re going into, it does seem inappropriate."_

_"Its time." One of the men next to Billy announced._

_"The Germans are supposed to have a division hiding out in there." Billy sighed. "They’re meant to have cannons too. The Brits had this stupid idea to march a platoon of Anzacs in on foot and this is the result. Bastards."_

_Kyle glanced anxiously at the forest before them and tried to see the enemy but he could not. However, they had to be there. The carnage that had been created in this terrible field of broken bodies and dead corpses was proof enough of that. His heart started pounding in fear as he started to understand that he was in a war and that Billy was his commanding officer._

_"Kyle," Billy met his gaze and suddenly his oldest brother looked not unlike their father, all knowing and imposing as he prepared to lead his men into battle. "Stay with me, please." His features melted into the brother he loved, not the battle hardened officer about to ride. "Whatever happens, make sure you stay at my side. We’ll get through this because I won’t let anything happen to you. Not ever."_

_Kyle wanted to ask him so many things but Billy faced front again and the moment was lost. There was only the sound of teeming rain before Billy unsheathed his saber and held it up for all his men to see before uttering that immortal call to arms of all men who were Cavalry in whatever army throughout history._

_"CHARGE!"_

***********

The first thing that Kyle did when he regained his senses was run into Mike’s arms and embraced his brother as hard as he could. Mike looked at his younger sibling in a mixture of surprise and deepening concern, wondering what could have happened to engender such a response. Judging by the way Kyle was burying his face in his chest, Mike suspected what he had seen was not pleasant.  

"Kyle?" Mike pulled his brother’s arms from around him and made the young boy look at him. "Its okay. It’s over now."  

Kyle could only respond by meeting his eyes fearfully once more before hugging him. 

"Its okay Kyle," Annette spoke up coming forward. "It’s not bad. You’ll see." She said bravely and kneeled down to take the cup he had dropped to the ground in order to take her turn.

Kyle watched her and hoped that what she would see was no way as bad as what he had witnessed on that plain so far away in the future…." 

*********

_"Goddamn Annette, that hurts!"_

_Annette found herself staring at Kyle. At least she thought it was Kyle. He looked so old! She was holding his arm, putting the finishing touches on what appeared to be a bandaged. Apparently the process in which she used to tighten the wrap left much to be desired by the level of annoyance in his voice._

_"Sorry…" she stumbled, not knowing what to say. Her hands were so different. They were not her hands. They were her mother’s hands. Annette recognised the slender fingers she had watched all her life working on Kyle’s arm, fingers that she was more accustomed to seeing brushing hair out of her face or the kneading dough to make the bread that would make her house smell so good. At five years of age, she was not certain what she was doing; aware only that Kyle did not like it very much._

_"You know," he looked at her. "I wasn’t this hurt in the war."_

_"You’re such a baby." She managed to remark. It was the only thing she trusted herself to say._

_"You’re just saying that because you’ve never had to be one of your patients." Kyle grimaced as he inspected her handiwork before rolling down his sleeve. As he stepped off the examination table which Annette knew well enough what it was from her visits to see either Doctor Alex or Nathan, she noticed something else. The glimmer of a gold star on his jacket._

_"Sheriff?" She stared at him perplexed. "You’re not the Sheriff."_

_Kyle gave her a look. "Thanks for the vote of confidence. Trust me, if your father wanted his job back I’d be more than happy to let him have it but apparently he likes fishing and retirement too much these days. I only got saddled with the job because I knew when to duck during the war."_

_"The war?" She looked at him._

_"Yes the war," he rolled his eyes in exasperation. "You know the reason why you’re not married yet." He gave her a sarcastic smile._

_Annette frowned and knew that was not meant to be a compliment. "Well neither are you!" She retorted, not able to think of anything else to say. Actually she had no idea whether he was or not but she was certain that with his winning ways, he could not possibly be._

_No woman was that dumb._

_"If you’re coming on to me this is not the way to go about it." He grinned adjusting his coat and reaching for his hat that lay next to him on the table._

_The remark was so far above Annette’s understanding that it went straight over her head and she stared at him blankly._

_"Well this has been fun." He said walking towards the door and offering her a wink as he left the room. "Until next time Doc."_

_Annette watched him leave and thought to herself._

_What a pig._

***********

  _Tommy saw himself teaching at a university. There were students listening to him with interest as he faded into his vision during the middle of a lecture and realised that his audience had come to see him because he had been a chemist who was one of the foremost authorities in that field of study. However, they listened to him not because he was that, they listened to him because he was one of the few African American men of the age to have achieved such greatness and amongst his listeners was a young student by the name of King._

 _The man Tommy would become had told the others like himself that not even prejudice could defeat a soul that knew itself and what it wished to achieve. Without a dream in one’s heart, without a purpose in one’s life, a person was not quite whole and the soul would die, long before the hatred doctrine of another could do the job. King listened closely and remembered those words the day he made a historic speech about his own dreams and went to his death believing in them._  

**********

_Jimmy Wilmington found himself astride a horse, overlooking the Lucky 7 ranch helping it continue even past the age of the men who had first used it to start a new life in Four Corners. He loved everything about the ranch and thrilled from the day he had first learnt to ride at the idea that he might keep their legacy alive. It pleased Jimmy to know that in the future he was being allowed to see, he had managed to do that. The ranch still lived. The home where Vin Tanner had raised his family stood and the old tracker had remained there with his wife until the end of their lives._

_The ranch was home to all of them now. Whenever any of them returned to Four Corners, invariably they would converge here, remembering this place as the playground of their childhood and of the family they were apart, knowing that its bonds were stronger than blood, stronger than time. Jimmy was pleased to remain its lighthouse keeper, the one to maintain this world that would always seemed steeped in legend, no matter how much time would pass and what transpired in the world outside._

_As far as destiny went, he could think of worse things._

**********

 

_Adam Dunne stared at the screen in front of him and saw art imitating life._

_It was not the same as the book he had written and he supposed that film tended to change things a bit but it was close enough for the moment and truth had a way of surfacing in the retelling. In the age of celluloid that he was now growing too old to be involved in, Adam watched the last story he would ever tell unfold on the movie screen before him._

_Yul Brynner played Chris Larabee._

_Of course he looked nothing like the man Adam had remembered as a child, he did not wear the face of a worn gunslinger, scarred by grief and loss only to be given new renewal by the friend he had made in the town of Four Corners. Still Brynner walked across the screen and captured everyone’s attention as the undisputed leader of the six men who rode with him._

_In that much at least, he and Chris had much in common._

_Vin Tanner had not survived the celluloid recreation accurately although McQueen had played him as an affable type not too different than the man himself. Buck Wilmington disappeared completely, so did Nathan Jackson for the times had not changed so much that anyone could stomach a black man being in the number of seven heroes, although his knife throwing abilities seemed to have been adopted by James Coburn in the movie. Adam hoped that someone in the future would give Nathan a better retelling. The creation played by Robert Vaughn (who bore a striking resemblance to old Judge Travis) seemed to be an amalgamation of Josiah’s call of the crows and Ezra Standish’s suave personality._

_They picked a young unknown to play the kid._

_Adam did not object to his father being portrayed as a Mexican and upon the viewing, found him to be the most faithful creation of all. Young, impetuous, striving to be a man, adopted by the six men who saw in him what it was to be young again. Adam watched the film unfold, feeling tears in his eyes, not understanding why he should weep when the men before him looked nothing like the Magnificent Seven he knew._

_It was just even though he was looking in on himself in the future, Adam knew instinctively that he would feel the same way when this event unfolded itself in the proper course of time._

_Because he would still miss them._

 

 


	8. All Together Now

 

There was a sense of quiet among all the children when it was all said and done.  

They had found the prize and yet it was nothing like they had imagined though not any less valuable. Mike found himself looking at Elena Rose and remembered the beautiful woman she would some day be and the child she would give him. While he had always known she was going to be his wife, seeing it as he had was an entirely different thing altogether and suddenly, he had something to work for because until the day he died, he would give her the world. And Elena Rose looked at Mike with the same confirmation of feeling she had felt when they had first entered this labrynthian quest, that she was and always would be his and that he would indeed give her the world or at the very least, show her much of it. 

Sam could only look at Peter in wonder when she was filled with the knowledge of what he would create in the future. Until it became a reality, the vision she had seen would follow her always. Even though the idea of what she would accomplish was so inconceivable at this time that it literally took the breath away, she knew that some day the sky would be her playground because Peter would make it possible for her. She still remembered the feeling of moving through the blue expanse like an untethered denizen of the sky, wind blowing through her hair and the heady knowledge that in the future she would be the sky’s most ardent traveler. With an insight almost as powerful as the one that had allowed her to see that future, she also knew that Peter would always be there to catch her should she fall, even though he was the one who had raised her to such lofty heights. 

Peter did think of Sam but only so far as to the fact that she would some day give him the son he had seen on that photograph who bore his father’s face. In truth, Peter thought mostly of the future he had seen, of the machines that he would some day create that would change everything that they knew. He thought about rockets and chemical propellants, of speeds so incredible that it was like a lightning bolt streaking across the sky. He also thought of the moon. Of how it had always been an unobtainable dream and that he might have a small part to do with making its conquest the greatest achievement man would ever accomplish.  

Unlike the others, Kyle’s vision had not given him the enthusiasm that it had given the others. He did not know why he had been singled to be permitted such a grim preview of what was to come but even at his age, he knew that he would never be the same after what he had seen. A little part of his childhood had slipped away then; disappearing in that mud splattered field, seeping into the broken bones of the dead bodies that had laid bleaching in the sun, like uncovered graves waiting proper burial. The image had been seared in his mind and he knew that he would wait the rest of his life for that event to come upon him, to finally have the question answered upon whether he would walk away from that battle alive. However, it did end though, Kyle resolved to do one thing when he emerged from this place and that was to tell Billy how much he loved him and that he was glad to have him as a brother. 

Penny kept glancing anxiously at the young boy behind the steel framed glasses trying to equate him with the image of the young man in his tuxedo who joined the stage with her. He had been so dashing and so unlike the Adam she knew that she wondered if perhaps it was the vision playing tricks with her mind. Yet as she continued to walk, leaving the Twin Lakes behind them, she found herself repeating to herself the words Penelope Dunne, as if trying the name on for size. To her mortification, she found out that it seemed quite natural. One thing for sure, she decided as she shook the thought out of her head, she would have liked that part of her future to be a surprise.

Adam was also deep in thought but mostly because he was trying to remember how the seven had actually met. His father did not like to talk about his initial arrival in Four Corners except to say that if not for Uncle Buck, he probably would have lasted his first day in town. Of course his mother was not so silent, she spoke of the wild adventures that included the town once being under siege, when the blight called the Ku Klux Klan had once appeared in town. His father and the men known as the Magnificent Seven had put an end to those dangers and the stories which he had half listened to most of his life, suddenly became the most important thing in the world to Adam Dunne. Important because he was going to start writing them down as soon as he got out of here.  

When the future he had seen became a reality, Adam wanted to make sure he got it right. 

Tommy told himself that if he ever got out of here alive and providing that his father did not kill him even if he did and ever permitted him to work in the lab again, he would listen to every word that Nathan Jackson had to impart. After seeing all those students in that classroom, staring at him with awe because of everything he had done in his life, Tommy knew that he was going to make that future a reality. He wanted that future and he was going to let nothing stand in the way of achieving it. They had looked at him with the same adoration that he gazed at his father whenever Nathan set to work in his lab, unaware of how much influence his life had upon his son. Tommy had always known that his father could do anything, and might have been anything he chose if the times were different. For himself and his father, Tommy who was unhampered by such limitations would change all that.  

As he spied all the friends around him, Jimmy Wilmington decided that he liked the idea that years from now, they would still be together. Even though his vision had allowed him to see that they would all go their separate ways, his own future would give them a place they could always come back too so that they could remember what it was like to be friends who had grown up together. He also liked the idea that some day, he would be in charge of the Lucky 7 ranch. Jimmy liked nothing more than to see his father with Uncle Chris and Uncle Vin doing what they did at the ranch and knew that he would love it as much as they did when it was time for the torch to be passed. The ranch had been a place for the Magnificent Seven and some day, it would be a place for their children as well.

How did she go from Princess to doctor? Annette Dunne was pondering this question as deeply as the strange words that Kyle had said to her and immediately decided that she needed the counsel of someone more knowledgeable than her to answer it. Elena Rose who had been taking care of her most of the journey was walking next to her, holding her hand as they traveled through the dark cavern in which the Twin Lakes run parallel along side of them. Tugging at her hand, she immediately caused Elena Rose to look down at her.

"Ellie." Annette asked as they journey along.

 "Yeah sweetie?" Elena Rose looked down at the younger girl with a smile. Annette was such a sweet child that she found herself wondering why her mother and father could not produce a sister instead of a brother. Girls were so much easier to handle and they smelled better too. 

"When I drank the water, I saw things." She remarked, her face tightening into a frown of puzzlement. 

"We all did." Elena Rose nodded in understanding.  

"I saw Kyle but he wasn’t like he was now. He was big, like his daddy." Annette pointed out.  

"He was all grown up." Elena Rose nodded, wondering what Annette’s future with Kyle would involve.  

"I don’t understand what he saying." Annette remarked with clear indication that the problem was troubling her. 

"What did he say?" Mike who was next to Elena Rose asked.  

"He said that I was trying to turn him on." 

Elena Rose’s eyes widened and Mike had to choke back a laugh. The devilish snigger that came out of his mouth only served to make Elena Rose jab him in the ribs to behave as she threw him a look of annoyance. 

"What does he mean?" Annette asked with no idea how volatile that question was.

"You’re on your own." Mike retorted chuckling as he faced front again and Elena Rose gave him a look that she would get him for this later.  

"I think," Elena Rose cleared her throat, trying to phrase this carefully. "That he likes you a lot, like a mommy and daddy kind of like. " She had no intention of telling Annette about the birds and the bees, not when the girl was five years old. Hell, she was not entirely sure of what it was either but she could not be around Buck Wilmington without having some idea. 

"Eww!" Annette wrinkled her nose in disgust.  

Elena Rose rolled her eyes and hoped that would satisfy Annette’s curiosity when Mike leaned over and whispered in her ear. "He’ll grow on her." 

Anything Elena Rose was about to say in response was cut short when Peter who was walking ahead of them, called out. After claiming their ‘treasure’ at the twin lakes, the children had continued walking along the narrow space of land that ran between the water. Since there was no way for them to retrace their steps because of the chasm that waited behind them, Mike realized they had no choice but to go forward. He refused to believe that those who had found this place and made a map of it would not have a way to leave. The map said nothing about how to get out and its guidance seemed to have ended with the discovery of the treasure, thus Mike tended to think that the way out must not require much difficulty to find. 

Mike hurried forward and soon found that the lakes converged into a large pool of water in a vast cavern. What had made Peter so excited was the discovery of a water wheel that was being powered by a cascade against the wall. Unlike the one they had seen in the underground lake prior to their arrival at the gateway, this one was not man made. The surge of water that gushed from it indicated that it had more than enough power to set the wheel in motion, which was at this moment being held in place by a lever. The water wheel appeared to be only one part of a mechanism that was attached to a set or ropes that ran up the height of the cavern, disappearing into a narrow aperture in the rock that was just wide enough to carry a man. It was a system of pulleys and ropes and although they could not be guaranteed as being any safer than the rope bridge they had encountered a short time ago, it was nonetheless a way out.  

"That’s it." Mike exclaimed. "That’s our way out." 

"Are you sure?" Peter looked at the thing dubiously, even though he was not very sure about it. "Those ropes across the bridge weren’t very safe and this might not be either." 

"Yeah I know," Mike studied the mechanism carefully. "It looks like those levers control which way the rope goes." 

"I noticed those." Peter replied as he heard the other approaching behind them. "I also notice that one person has to work them while the others go up unless…." His mind drifted off and he found himself gazing back at the cavern from which they had just emerged. 

"What is it?" Mike said starting to have all kinds of faith in Peter’s ability to find them out a way out of a difficult situation.  

"Rope." Peter met his gaze. "We need rope." 

It took no more than an instant for Mike to catch on to Peter’s plans. "I’ll backtrack and get some," Mike said retreating towards the narrow passageway. "You get the others up and going."

"Mike!" Elena Rose exclaimed, "we’re not just going to leave you here. We got together." 

"Elena, don’t be such a girl!" Mike said barely listening. "Get going!" 

"Such a girl!" She cried out hands on her hips in outrage. "Ooh!" She fumed in exasperation, honestly wondering why she bothered some times. "Why do I even care?"  

"Give it up," Sam said prompting her to keep going, knowing that Mike’s determination for them to go on ahead was mostly from his fierce desire to see them safe, now that they were so close to a possible escape. "He’s a lost cause anyway." 

She continued to watch him disappeared up the walkway between the twin lakes and decided that Sam was right and Mike would not let them wait, even for him now that it looked like they had discovered a way out of this underground world. Not that it had been fascinating but after what they had seen, Elena Rose was certain she spoke for everyone when she said she wanted to go home.  

However, she also wanted all of them to get there as well. 

* * *

It did not take Mike long to retrace his steps back to the ledge where they had almost lost Sam to find the tattered remains of the bridge that had borne most of them across in safety before it had chosen to inconveniently to give out. He supposed he could not blame the structure for its bad timing for who knows how long it had hung suspended in place during the years. Reaching the space that would have been the stepping off point for the bridge had it still been intact, Mike immediately began working on the ropes that had saved Sam’s life and unraveled the knots that held it in place. Quickly, he began pulling the length of hessian from the darkness below, estimating that it would be just the right height to be of use to him. 

Once he had gathered it all in a bundle, he hurried back the way he came, hoping that Peter had begun the process of sending the others up the lift – water wheel mechanism. The idea that the end might be in sight for this long journey filled him with relief but not as much as the fact that they would reach it alive and unharmed. Although secretly, he was thrilled by the dangers they had faced, he told himself resolutely that the next time he embarked on such an escapade, he would be doing it alone. He was never endangering the lives of any of his friends ever again. 

It did not take him long to return to the others and as he re-entered the final cavern in this leg of the journey, he saw Sam helping Penny into the small wooden step as her hands wrapped around the handle that was a little further along the rope. Although the little ones would have to be content with just hanging onto its length since the handle was too far apart from the step to reach, Mike did not foresee a problem. Peter stood at the device, awaiting Penny to get ready for the journey up before he pulled the appropriate levers. Elena Rose, Tommy, Kyle, Jimmy, Adam and Annette had already gone and all that remained were himself, Sam and Peter. 

"How did it go?" He asked as he dropped off the edge of the walkway into the water and started splashing towards his friends. 

"It looks like a wild ride!" Sam grinned and Mike rolled his eyes, wondering how the girl could be so devil may care about anything after her near fatal brush with death. 

"You’re crazy!" Penny retorted just as Peter activated the lever that started pulling the ropes up. "Oh gosh!!!!!!" She cried out as she was spirited far above their heads in a matter of seconds, disappearing into the ceiling and out of sight. 

"We sent Elena Rose first," Sam informed dutifully as he approached her. "The rope seems to be pretty strong, Adam was able to take Annette up with no trouble at all. Tommy took Jimmy." 

"That was risky." Mike remarked but supposed if the rope could take Elena’s weight then it ought to have no trouble with Tommy and Annette who were smaller than her. "Did Kyle go up there alone?" 

"Yeah," Sam nodded with a hint of concern on her face that Mike could instinctively read just as easily as he was able to tell what Elena Rose was thinking even though his friendship with Sam was a different thing all together. "He said he could manage on his own but…." 

"But you’re worried about him." Mike nodded, understanding completely. Ever since Kyle had looked into his future, there was something about him that had changed. It was a look he saw in his father’s eyes enough times and it disturbed Mike to see it in his eight-year-old brother. "Me too. I don’t know what he saw but it scared the hell out of him. I’ll have to talk to him later. Meantime, you’re next." He gestured to the rope as the handle came back once again.  

"Great," she beamed brightly as she waited for it to reach her. "Where do you think it goes?"  

"Who knows?" Mike retorted as she put her foot on the step and secured her grip on the handle. The device was obviously made for an adult because Sam had to stretch her arms a little to utilize the foot and handholds. "As long as it gets us from out of here." 

"No kidding," Sam grinned. "As it is, I’m going to have to bring out the big artillery when I get home." 

"The big artillery?" Mike looked at her. 

"Yeah," she smiled and then allowed her features to melt into an expression of pure regret. "Oh daddy, I didn’t mean to be late. Please don’t be mad at me." She finished the performance with an exaggerated sound that might have been a sob. 

"Does that actually work?" He asked in disbelief. 

"On my mom, that’s a maybe." Sam replied. "On my father, all the time. Penny’s not the only one knows about acting." 

Mike shook his head in amusement and retorted. "Get up there." 

"Ready?" Peter called up. 

"Yeah!" Mike answered, waving at him as a signal to begin. Peter nodded and no sooner than he had pushed the appropriate lever, the ropes became slave to the power being unleashed upon it by the water wheel, rotating with the strength of a waterfall behind it. Sam was lifted upwards and he heard a cry of exuberance as he continued looking up at her, until her overalled form disappeared into crack in the ceiling. 

When she had disappeared, Mike went over to Peter since they were the only two remaining. The younger boy gave Mike quick instructions on which lever to pull and did not even bother to argue the point that he was next to go. Knowing Mike, he would not let any of them stay behind especially when the last person going would have an interesting time of it.  

"You got those instructions?" Peter asked as he turned to the rope when it finally returned without Sam." 

"I got them," Mike nodded. "Now get on that thing." He ordered. 

"Alright," Peter replied wading through the water and climbing onto the step when he reached it. After securing himself in place, he turned to Mike and called out. "See you up there." 

Mike’s response was to throw the lever and to watch as Peter Standish disappeared into the air. He watched the younger boy as far as he could and then felt overcome by a sense of apprehension at being alone for the first time since this all began. Strange how the sound of all their voices could leave such a void and he told himself he was being foolish since he would be with them soon enough.

When he saw the handle returning, Mike knew what he had to do. Tying the rope around his waist, Mike waited until the handle was within reach before he tied the rope around it, hoping that it was strong enough to hold him before he waded back to the lever. There was every possibility the rope could snap from the tension, which was why Mike would allow no one else to do this in his place. He reached the lever and made sure that he had a clear path to the ropes when the mechanism was activated. Taking a deep breath, he braced himself for what would happen and tentatively pushed the lever forward.

Immediately, he felt the pull of the ropes dragging him forward and running at top speed was all he could do to keep up with it as the pulley system kicked into play. In a matter of seconds, he was right at the foot of the ropes and the next thing he knew, he was being lifted up in the air, all the while holding his breath as he prayed silently that the rope would hold. 

Or else this was going to be one very short trip.

* * *

At about the same time that Mike was making his ascent upwards, Billy Travis and Lilith King found themselves staring across the abyss that separated one ledge from another as they stood at the edge covered in mud. Like the children before them, they had taken the tumultuous journey down through the gateway and down the slope into the pit of mud that waited at the end of it. Staring at the chasm, not to mention the damaged remnants of a bridge sent stark horror into both of them.

"God Billy," Lilith tried not to think the worst but the evidence before her was too much. "You don’t think….." 

"No," Billy swallowed hard and did not know what to say until he sighted something before them. "Wait a minute! Look at the other side!" He pointed. 

She immediately followed his gaze but could not see what he was alluding to her with such hope in his voice. All she knew for certain was that she wanted to believe that the children were safe. "What?" 

"The ropes," Billy said exuberantly. "There are ropes on the other side, on the ledge itself." 

"I don’t understand…" she started to say. 

"Don’t you see," he pointed to the remains of rope that Mike had cut away earlier in order to make his escape. "There are pieces of rope on the other side, that means someone had to put them there." 

"Oh thank god!" Lilith exclaimed because even that minute fragment of hope was better than nothing. 

"The question is," Billy looked across the wide gap that separate one end of the cavern from the other. "Is how do we get there?" He gave her a little look. "Got any ideas? I solved the last one." He said with a smile. 

"All you did was stick your fingers in five holes," Lilith rolled her eyes. "That did not take much effort." 

"Hey, you try coming up with that piece of inspiration when there’s fire shooting through the room." He retorted.  

"Oh stop complaining," she flashed him a bemused smile and regarded the space he wished for them to cross. "I’ll get us across." 

"How?" He asked, guessing by the way she had gotten them past Hank and his gang that her skills as a conjurer were far more powerful than he had ever imagined. He had no doubt that she would be able to get them across, even if he could not imagine in what form she would accomplish it. 

"I’ve got a little trick I’ve been practicing but I haven’t tried at the scale that it will need to be for us get over to the other side," she confessed.  

"It’s a long drop for a first time attempt," Billy retorted, glancing anxiously at the darkness below them. "You sure about this?" 

"No but I’m gonna try anyway." She answered and stepped to the edge of the chasm, before dropping to her knees and making contact with the ground as her palm pressed into the earth. Billy stood back and allowed her to do what she had to, once again hearing her chant those odd words to the trio of Goddesses to whom her power seem to come.  

Billy felt the same frosty chill in the air that often signaled that she was beginning her spell even more acutely than the words she spoke when invoking the incantation. However this time, there was something more at work. The air was cold but as he started to breathe, he could see vapor coming from his mouth as hot air turned into gaseous state. It was not until he observed Lilith did he understand why. From the place where her palm was resting on the ground, ice particles had started to expand outward, covering the ground in frost before surging ahead with more potency. 

In fascination, he watched the frost become ice and it surged past the edge of the narrow ledge and kept going, flying through the air, like water being poured from a glass. He saw it stretch across the gap and then latching onto the ledge on the other side, immediately bonding to the rock with enough volume behind it to be utterly secure. The bridge that had been created was not very wide but appeared strong enough to carry them both from one end to the other. As Billy marveled in what his bride was capable, he suddenly noticed that she was breathing hard as if the feat had been exhausting. 

"Lily?" He quickly rushed to her side. "Are you okay?" He demanded, suddenly fearful at the repercussions for using her abilities as much as she had today. 

"Yes I’m fine," she nodded as he took her arm and helped her to her feet. "Its drains you a bit sometimes." 

"Are you sure you’re alright to carry on?" He asked tenderly, affection and love bleeding into his voice as he asked the question. While what she did sometimes frightened him, Billy would not have her any other way. What she did brought an element of wonder to his life and he could never find it in himself to abhor her for that. 

"I’m sure," she met his gaze with a heartfelt smile, appreciating the warmth she saw there before gazing at her handiwork. "That worked better than I thought." 

"If you don’t mind," Billy replied looking at the bridge of ice that waited for them to cross. "I’ll go first. You built the thing, the least I can do is try it out for you." He gave her a wan smile as he stepped forward and put the weight of one foot down on the smooth surface. Aside from crushing the thin layer of frost on it, there seemed to be no ill effects suffered by the construction of ice and Billy took another step forward.

"Billy be careful," Lilith could not help cry out. Her powers were great but if he were to fall, there would be no way she could save him and the idea of his death was something she could not even begin to imagine.  

"Trust me," Billy answered as he continued to move father and farther along the ice, at the same time, keeping his eyes focussed on the ledge and not what was waiting for him should he fall. "As Ezra would say, I am not lost to the gravity of the situation." 

* * *

When the rope finally came to a stop, the children found themselves in a cave but unlike others before it, this was not a huge cavern leading deeper and deeper into the earth nor was it new and unfamiliar cavern signaling the beginning of another trial. When they had first entered the mountain, there was little chance for exploration since the cave in question was populated by a large number of insects that had required them to move quickly through it for the sanity of the females in their party. If they had, they may have discovered an obsequious crack along the slime-covered wall that might have given them the suspicion that might lead to another chamber. 

When she had first climbed off the step, Elena had taken the time to examine her surroundings and found herself in a narrow passage whose entrance was covered with thick vines, other creepers and moss. It required her to brush most of this aside to penetrate it and it did not help that it was almost pitch black. However, not even the darkness was able to keep her from realizing it when she was confronted by the escape route taken by the insects whom Tommy had frightened away with the torch in the beginning of their journey beneath the earth. Elena almost screamed her head off until she realized that following the passage they occupied would no doubt lead her out. Remembering that she had to do this sometime and because she had to find out what was out here before the others arrived, Elena Rose closed her eyes, braced herself and kept moving until she was past the swarm of bugs. She forced herself not to come undone by the sound of their scraping noises against the rock or think too much abo ut how they would feel on her skin. 

The most beautiful sight in the world greeted her when she finally survived that trial and emerged into that familiar place where this had all began, the sight of night sky twinkling beyond the uneven fissure that was the way they had come in. 

They had made it!  

"Elena!" She heard a voice calling behind her and knew immediately that it was Tommy. "Are you there?" 

"Tommy," Elena responded. "Follow my voice. We've made it! We're back at the cave where we started!" 

Elena could hear Annette's squeals of horror upon discovering that the journey out would necessitate passing those bugs again and found herself unable to sympathize entirely with the little girls' fear. 

Once she heard Adam approaching, Elena stepped out of the entrance and took her first breath of fresh air in what almost felt like forever. Overhead, it was well into twilight but she had expected that and the scent in her lungs of night air, felt like nothing else in the world. She was so happy to be out in the open air that she almost did not mind what hell to pay there would be when she and Jimmy finally got home. 

"Oh boy," Adam exclaimed when he poked his head out of the cave entrance. "I never thought I’d be so glad to see the sky again." 

"Me too." Annette agreed with her brother with a definitive nod. "I want to go home."

 "Okay," Elena replied, seeing no reason why the others could not begin the trek down the ridge. "Why don’t you start down." She urged. "I’ll wait for the others." 

Adam was more than happy to comply although now that they were back on familiar terrain, he was suddenly struck with the idea that he would be required to do some explaining when he faced his father next. The darkness of the sky indicated that it was well and truly past suppertime and no doubt, his mother would be going out of her mind with worry.  

Very soon, everyone with the exception of Mike had made their appearance and Elena Rose could not help feeling a sliver of worry at his absence. However, Peter soon put those fears to rest when he reported that Mike was coming up next. 

"Look Elena," Sam said aware that Elena was torn between her affections for Mike and her responsibilities towards seeing Jimmy safely home. "I’ll wait for Mike, the rest of you head on down and we’ll meet you there." 

Elena Rose nodded begrudgingly and decided that it was the best course of action of the moment and the small troop of adventurers descended down the ragged slope that had been the start of this journey and now would be the end of it as well. In the same manner in which they had scaled it, their descent followed the same pattern with the older children walking behind the younger ones to catch them if anyone slipped. Elena Rose kept looking over her shoulder to see if Mike had yet to emerge but with the darkness as pervading as it was, she soon lost sight of the entrance all together when they finally stepped onto even land. 

"I’m glad that’s over." Penny exclaimed with a sigh of relief. 

"Hey it was fun!" Tommy grinned and in retrospect, it was fun. Fun, heady and dangerous, everything a  _real_  adventure ought to be. 

"You say that now." She met his gaze with a little smile.  

Tommy was about to respond when a new voice broke into their hearing.  

"Well little lady, I’d be interested in hearing all about it." Hank Young replied as he emerged from the shadows with the rest of his men and added when the children found themselves more or less surrounded "Real interested." 

* * *

Mike thought his arms might just tear off at the sockets as he made the arduous climb up the last few feet of the rope’s journey. Climbing until he reached the handle, Mike was able to use its strength to drag himself over to solid ground. His arms still ached painfully afterwards and his palms stung with rope burns but he had made it and judging by the silence around him, so had the others. He looked around his new surroundings and found the same exit that Elena Rose had used to reach the outside world again. The middle Larabee child was about to make his advance through it when Sam came bursting through it. 

"Mike!" She gushed. 

"What’s wrong?" He demanded, wondering what calamity had befallen them now. 

"Men!" She exclaimed and then paused to catch her breath. "There were men down there waiting for us and they’ve got the others." 

"Oh what next?" Mike threw his arms up in exasperation. "Ten lousy plagues?" 

"We’ve got to do something!" Sam declared. "Those must be the men you took the map from." 

"I know that," Mike groaned and knew that it was most likely Hank Young down there. "Did you see which way they went?"  

"Of course I did." She looked at him somewhat offended. "My father is a tracker you know." 

Mike did not even bother to comment and merely ushered her towards the passageway she had just come through. "Let’s go."

* * *

They were in trouble.

They had thought they were in trouble when they were underground but cryptic clues and booby traps had nothing in comparison to the danger posed by men with nothing but greed in their eyes. As she and the others were brought back to the camp, it was obvious that the men had been waiting for them for sometimes. The little ones were very afraid and while Tommy and Peter’s defiance was bursting to surface, Elena kept them in check, aware that such a response could have fatal repercussions. She was a child of the Territory long enough to recognize what could be deemed as ‘bad men’ and the hulk that led them could snap Peter and Tommy’s young neck like kindling.  

Something else was bothering her too.  

She noticed the way Jesse Young kept staring at her and she did not like it. For some reason, she felt a shudder run down her spine at his deep gaze and wondered what he had in mind that made her such a point of interest. She had an idea that she should never find out. 

"Where is the map?" Hank finally approached her as they were forced to the ground surrounded by his men, keeping a close eye on both them. 

"The map?" Elena spoke for everyone, she did not trust the anger she saw in either Tommy or Peter. Adam was more restrained mostly because he was trying to keep Annette from crying. The little one was very afraid and Elena could understand that because her arms were wrapped firmly around Jimmy’s shoulder.  

"The one you little thieves stole from me!" Jesse barked angrily at her, still with that strange glimmer in his eyes. 

"We don’t know anything about it." She said defiantly and before she could even think about what the consequences for that action might be, she felt a sharp blow to her cheek than sent her falling backwards.  

"Leave my sister alone!" Jimmy shouted just before he sank his teeth into the man’s arm. 

Hank howled in pain and shoved Jimmy away easily but not before milk teeth were enough to cause considerable pain. He felt down on the ground next to Elena Rose and whimpered a little because the fall was hard. Peter and Tommy were on their feet as Elena felt the stars in front of her eyes dissipated. In all her life, she had never been struck by anyone. She could feel blood inside her mouth and the flaring pain at the corner of her lip. 

"Tommy, Peter, no!" Elena recovered enough to shout.  

"Listen to the girl," Hank glowered at the two boys. "I ain’t never shot children before but a man’s gotta try some things at least one." 

"We found the map Mister," Penny spoke up suddenly, unwilling to let anyone else get hurt. "We found it in the school house." She swallowed fumbling into her satchel and producing the scroll of paper that had began all this.   
"Penny no!" Peter retorted. 

"Shut up boy!" Hank silenced him with a growl. He took a step towards the girl with the red curls and took it from her.

"Why did you do that!" Peter hissed at Penny as Hank handed the map to Jesse who immediately unrolled it with nearly fevered excitement.  

"Because its not what he thinks." She returned. "He thinks that the map leads to a gold mine but we know that it doesn’t. There isn’t anything he can steal and all he’ll get is a glimpse into his future like we did. That’s if he can even reach it. Besides, he’s already hurt Elena Rose, I don’t want to see what else he’ll do." 

"How do we know its still there?" Jesse suddenly asked. "You kids found it didn’t you?" He glared at them and brought Hank’s attention away from the map to his captives. 

"There was nothing to find," Elena Rose answered before Penny could do. She was allowing no one else to get hurt because she did not doubt it when she heard him threaten to shoot them. "Just a moldy old pool of water that we wouldn’t drink." 

"But you got to the end." Jesse said excitedly and faced Elena again with that look. 

"Yes," she nodded slowly. "We got to the end and then we got out again. We didn’t find anything." 

"I want to talk to this one." Jesse said coming towards her and grabbing her arm. "Alone." He only had to cast a short glance at Hank for the man to understand what he meant by ‘talk.  

Strange, Hank had never thought Jesse’s taste ran that way, however the girl was very pretty. A couple of years and she would be quite the looker. Besides, the distraction might keep Jesse busy for awhile as he pondered what he was going to do with his captives now that he had the map. Releasing them was not an option for the moment because no doubt there would be repercussions for taking them captive and Hank wanted to go after the gold unhampered by local law enforcement. 

"Leave her alone!" Hank heard the kid next to the girl cry out when Jesse dragged his sister to her feet and took her out of the camp. 

"Settle down," Hank barked at him and silence the small boy into submission, using the girl’s circumstances to keep them all in line. "He ain’t gonna hurt her." Hank remarked and then added with a sneer. "Much." 

Suddenly, there was a sharp sound in the air.  

He heard what sounded like a rock being thrown in the distance. Hank immediately turned it its direction and listened closely for it, wondering if it would repeat itself and answer the question of whether it was a random event or something more focussed. He did not have to wait long because the bottle of whiskey sitting next to one of his men exploded spectacularly when a large pebble was flung into it, sending a spray of glass in all directions.  

"Damn!" Branson swore as he shielded his eyes from being cut to pieces by glass. 

The camp did not have time to recover as more and more stone projectiles were flung at them. Objects were knocked over, Miller got caught in the cheek with a sharp jagged edge and was gushing blood from a gash across his face and was none too happy about the injury. The projectiles were aimed with remarkable accuracy and always met its target.  

"There’s more of the bastards around here!" Hank growled. "Fan out!" He ordered. "Go find them." 

His order followed his men dispersing in all directions as they went to search for the unseen children who was surely responsible for this. Hank himself began skirting the perimeter of the encampment, attempting to catch out the child responsible for the damage. He kept his captives in the corner of his eyes, determined that no halfling was going to get the better of him.

* * *

In the meantime, Peter and the others knew that this attack was no doubt the handiwork of Samantha Tanner and their chances of finding her were next to impossible. The young girl was indeed her father’s daughter and the undisputed champion of hide and seek in their number knew how to go to ground. They could search all night and the children were confident they would not find her. Sam had the uncanny ability to find the most impossible places to conceal herself and no doubt this occasion would find her at her most creative.  

Mike sneaked in as close as he could get to his friends without being seen by either Hank or his men. Thanks to Sam’s little distraction, he only had to worry about their behemoth leader even though that did not make things any easier. He took refuge behind the shrubs and was relieved when he saw Tommy in sight because he had something of a plan and only Tommy could make it work. 

"Tommy." Mike hissed. 

Tommy started to turn around, following the sound of his voice when Mike said sharply. "Don’t look at me." 

"Okay," Tommy answered and upon realizing who he was talking to, the faces of the others flared up in hope that their leader might yet help them to escape. 

"Tommy, do you still have that medicine you used to start the fire?" Mike asked carefully, his eyes following Hank’s movement throughout all his instruction.  

Tommy instinctively looked at his satchel and knew that he did. "Yeah, why?" 

"I want you to start a fire with it." Mike asked. "Can you do that?" 

Tommy thought carefully and then responded with a little smile as an idea formed in his head. "Leave to it to me." 

As Mike withdrew back into the bushes, Tommy turned to Penny. "Penny, I need another one of your linens."  

"Oh will this nightmare never end?" She grumbled out of habit more than anything else but did not waste any time handing over her last handkerchief.

Fascinated, Peter watched as Tommy took the scrap of white cloth and shoved part of it into the bottle of alcohol that he used to light their torches during their journey through the caves. The boy ensured that the end he placed inside the bottle made contact with its contents, all the while keeping a watchful eye on Hank because they had only once chance at this.  

"Get everyone ready to run." Tommy said to Peter, passing on the details of Mike’s simple but hopefully effective plan at getting them away from Hank and his men.  

A quiet whisper went throughout the group, beginning with Peter and then ending with Adam, who quickly wrapped his hand around Annette’s and Jimmy’s while Penny did the same with Kyle, preparing to move at a moment’s notice when Mike gave the signal. Tommy continued with his task, creating the makeshift explosive device with his bottle of alcohol intended for use to clean cuts and bruises, not to create chaos. Hank had his back still turned to them, glancing occasionally in their direction to ensure they were still where they were. Tommy had made sure that he could not been seen clearly and sat hunched a little behind Peter who was shorter than him but had enough bulk to hide what he was doing.  

"Okay here goes nothing," Tommy said finding the matches that had since dried out after all the abuse they had taken today and immediately set to work lighting the piece of linen. Once the fabric began to burn, its advance to the alcohol inside the bottle was swift. "Everyone, on Mike’s signal." He added finally and the others nodded, poised to move.  

"Now!" Mike gave the signal and Tommy threw the bottle as far away from them as possible, making sure it landed on some saddlebags that were lying on the ground. The bottle fairly exploded when it hit its target, glass shattered and the flammable liquid expanded outward, creating a small inferno, as it became to consume the saddlebags. The children scrambled quickly to their feet and started to run as Hank swung around cursing and then saw the fire blazing before him.  

"This way!" Mike ordered them towards the ridge once again. They had no more than a few seconds to keep ahead of Hank who was struggling to make a choice over putting out the fire or going after them. Somehow Mike had a feeling he would opt for the latter. In any case, they only had to make those seconds in the narrow margin between his debate and his decision count and gain as much distance as they could. 

"Get up the ridge!" Mike told Peter and the others as he herded them in the direction he intended. "Get into the cave, he’s not small enough to fit in there!"  

"Mike," Peter declared, "they took Ellie." 

"What do you mean they took Elena!" Mike demanded feeling his heart race. "Where did they take her?" 

"They went that way." Peter answered, understanding the fear in Mike’s eyes all too well. It was the same feeling he had at the moment, praying that Sam could stay ahead of Hank’s men. "He had glasses on and he said he had to talk to her alone." 

Something about the way Peter said that struck cold fear into Mike’s heart. They did not have time for him to debate this at length and he knew what he had to do. "You get going with the others. Make sure they get into the cave and go all the way to the underground lake if you have to." 

"Okay," Peter nodded. "What are you going to do?"  

Mike’s jaw tightened. "I’m going to go get Elena." 

* * *

When the commotion had started, Elena Rose had hardly any awareness of it because she had a feeling that her own situation was far more urgent. As Jesse forced her to talk, threatening life and limb to Jimmy and all the others, about their journey following his map, she knew that once she had given him every piece of information, he would act upon the sinister intent in his eyes. She did not know what it was that he intended exactly but the look of him made her skin crawl. While everything had gone to hell around them, Jesse remained focus asking his questions as if nothing else mattered except finding what was at end of the map. 

"I told you everything I know." Elena declared trying to hide her fear but she a little over twelve and it was starting to frighten her this sense of intuition she had about him. "I want to go back to my brother." 

"Not for awhile." Jesse said coming closer to her and Elena Rose instinctively backed away. He reacted to her retreat by grabbing her roughly by the arm and pulling her across the distance away. She had absolutely not the strength to fight him and just to make sure she would not recoil, he sank his fingers in her hair and pulled her even closer. He stood taller than her but Jesse lowered his face and took a breath of her hair, savoring the smell. 

"You’re a very beautiful girl," Jesse started to say. "You know that."

Something about the action snapped the reason inside of her and she reacted by sinking her nails in his face and raking back hard.  

"Bitch!" He screamed and delivered the second backhanded blow she received that day. Elena hit the ground again, feeling the same stinging pain doubled because he had struck the same patch of bruised skin on her mouth and let out a soft cry of pain. 

"We could have been friends." Jesse started to say as he leaned over and grabbed her wrist, taking advantage of her disorientation to regain his hold on her. "We could have made this easy. Now it's just going to be hard for you anyway." He added salaciously. 

"Please…" she started to cry, becoming frightened for more than just her life. "Don’t hurt me." 

"Beyond that now girl," Jesse started to grin. 

"Hey!" A familiar voice suddenly captured his attention. Jesse turned around in time to catch a belly full of shovel as Mike swung it hard, connecting the face of the spade against the man’s torso. The pain forced Jesse to release his grip around her wrist and Elena Rose scrambled away. She watched wide-eyed as Mike swung the shovel neatly into an arch before he took another swipe at Jesse who was doubled over in agony. Mike gave him little chance to recover and smashed into the side of his face, downing the man completely. When Jesse hit the dirt, he was no longer conscious.  

Mike was breathing hard, never having allowed his fury to take control like this before. When Hank had been searching for the others, Mike had sneaked into the camp and grabbed the only thing he could find that might suffice as a weapon. He was certain that he would not have an easy time of it rescuing Elena but when he saw Jesse throwing his fist into her face, he was overwhelmed with rage and had hardly considered what he was doing until he saw Jesse lying at his feet, out cold. 

"Oh Mike!" She cried out and embraced him hard, never been so relieved to see him in all her life.  

"You alright?" He asked tenderly, feeling a renewed sense of rage at seeing the ugly bruises on her cheek.  

"I’m fine." She nodded. "Let’s just get out here." 

Both of them turned around to find themselves staring at Hank. 

"I don’t think so." Hank replied barring their way. "You made a good try boy." The older man had to say as he glanced past the two teens and saw the heap that was his brother. "I’ll give you that. I’ll bet you’re the one who probably sent my men running with that little distraction of yours and almost burned Patterson's saddle to a cinder to get my attention away from your friends." His hand remained poised on his gun, indicating to both children that he would shoot if they attempted to move. "I’ll even give you the fact that you had every right to be sore at Jesse. I ain’t got taste for young meat myself but Jesse ain’t never been quite right, ain’t never been much of a man either but…" Hank remarked as he unsheathed his gun and pointed the barrel point blank at Mike’s face. "He’s still my brother." 

"And he’s mine." The audible click of a gun hammer being pulled back was heard as Billy Travis emerged from the shadows. "You pull the trigger and you’ll be dead before he hits the ground." 

Hank froze and turned around slowly to see a younger man with the eyes of granite glaring at him who did not appear to have any hesitation over pulling the trigger, holding a gun aimed clearly at the back of his head. Next to him was a willowy blond that Hank had seen around Four Corners during his time there.  

"You got any more brothers waiting to come out of the shadows boy?" Hank asked Mike with clear anger in his voice. 

"No," Lilith answered before anyone else could. "But trust me, getting on the wrong side of their  _father_  is a mistake of biblical proportions." 

* * *

Sam had been doing quite well until she saw Hank Young's men going after the others as they made their way up the hill towards the cave entrance. As she watched Peter safely from the branches of the tree she had climbed up and was presently hidden from sight, Sam's stomach hollowed seeing a group of men making fast tracks to her friends. They were converging on Peter and the others and he did not even know it. She could not see Mike to ask him what to do and so she came to the conclusion that whatever was to be done would be up to her alone.

Her slingshot had provided Mike the distraction he needed to get close enough to Tommy and the others early on in the rescue and she hoped that it might well again do the same. Carefully ensuring that no one saw her descent, Sam climbed down the branches of the tree, which had served, so well as her hiding place. Upon touching the ground, she immediately collected more ammunition in the form of sharp, round rocks and pebbles, before searching a vantagepoint from which she could launch her attack. Almost trembling as she collected them, Sam did not mind admitting that she was plenty scared and she had a right to be. These men were killers and if she made a mistake, she could get herself killed or worse yet, someone she cared about.

Using the stealth that she had been taught most of her life, Sam made her way across the terrain, keeping a close eye out for any stray members of Hank's gang that were not presently engaged in attempting to corral Peter and the others. She knew she had to distract them with the rocks she had gathered for the purpose and soon found herself the perfect position to use them. Hoping that the same trick would work twice, Sam made her way to the top with the skill of someone who had been accustomed to the practice most her life, sneaking in and out of her room. 

Suddenly, she saw something that made her forget all that. 

Seven riders were approaching fast in the distance and even though it was dark, the number was too coincidental to be anyone else. With her heart beating fast, Sam forget about what she was doing and immediately climbed down the tree when suddenly, there was a loud sound which she recognized as gunfire. The thought did not even have time to fully register itself on her brain when she felt the searing pain smash into her arm. Sam did not even have time to cry out as the bullet had knocked the wind out of her and she tumbled to the ground, snapping branches as she made her descent. When her head smacked the length of a particularly large branch, she knew nothing else.

* * *

"I got one of them!" Patterson shouted as he closed in on the unconscious young girl that he had managed to force from her hiding place in the trees. Branson, still clutching a bloody rag to his cut cheek joined him as they perused their find. She was lying on her side, dark hair splayed about her face and blood oozing through the sleeve of the dirty shirt she was wearing from the bullet wound he had inflicted upon her.  

"This the little bitch that cut my face?" Branson demanded, glaring at the girl who was starting to stir after her fall.

 Sam was not certain of anything but supposed that this was a good a distraction if any, since she did not hear the voices of any of the others except these vile men. As they closed in around her, reveling in their capture of her as if she were some sort of trophy, Sam was conscious of what they were not in their arrogance. Through the dizzying pain in her head, the stinging pain of a bullet passing through her flesh and what felt like a broken rib by the jagged agony that shuddered through her each time she moved, her senses were remarkably clear. She could hear the approach, even if her captors did not.

"You cut my face!" Branson grabbed Sam by the hair and made her look at the oozing cut on his face.

Sam blinked once and then remarked in a low whisper. "You were ugly to begin with anyway!"  

"Why I oughta...." He raised his hand to strike her when his companions spoke up.

"Come on Branson," the man said quickly. Patterson was many things in his lifetime but he was not about to add child killer to that list just yet. Even a man like him had some limits. "She's just a kid and it looks to me like I might have winged her when I shot her out of that tree."

"Better listen to him Mister," Sam gasped, trying not to show this man she was in pain and a lot of it. "You better let me go! My daddy is the best tracker in the Territory, if he knows you hurt me like this, he'll gut you from neck to nuts!"

"Oh yeah?" Branson laughed. "You got a mouth on you kid and your daddy ain't here to do nothing. Even if he was, we'd a put a bullet in him just as fast we put one in you." 

"The problem is," Chris Larabee said very coolly. "Her daddy usually don't go anywhere alone." 

Branson and Patterson looked up to find themselves staring down the barrels of seven guns aimed in their direction as well as seven equally angry and worried fathers behind the triggers.  

"Daddy!" Sam cried out. 

"Mister," Vin Tanner said barely restraining himself as he saw his daughter in the man's grip. "If you don't get your hands off my daughter right now, I will blow your fucking head off." 

"Mr Tanner," Ezra remarked automatically with a hint of smirk in his voice. "Such language in front of your daughter." 

"Drop your guns!" JD ordered sharply. "Before you do something we  _kill_  you for." Despite all their bravado, the seven men were worried sick about their children and the gunfire they had heard had struck cold fear into their hearts when it had tore through the air during their approach. JD was just as enraged by the idea of these men firing upon children as the rest of the seven and it was only the star he wore on his lapel that kept him from using them for target practice.  

"Let her go!" Patterson barked at Branson, not preparing to die for a map or for harming a child any more than he inadvertently done already. 

Branson cursed under his breath and released Sam, who dropped to the ground with a soft cry when she landed. She hit the ground just about the same time their guns hit the dirt. She groaned in pain from multiple wounds and heard Vin's footsteps running towards her in a matter of seconds. 

"Sammie," Vin dropped to his knees long enough to scooped up his daughter in his arms, having seen the slick of blood on her sleeve or the fact that she was groaning in pain as she struggled to get to her feet. He had never been so grateful to have his child back as when he wrapped his arms around her and embraced her, careful not to cause further aggravation to her injuries. God only knew what Alex's state of mind would be when she saw this. 

"Its okay sweetheart, you're safe now." He whispered gently, holding her as he had when she was a baby, fragile and soft. "Nathan, she's hurt!" He called out to the doctor with more than an edge of panic in his voice when JD and Buck moved into take charge of Patterson and Branson. 

"Oh daddy, I didn’t mean to be late. Please don’t be mad at me." Sam looked at him and said weakly with a little smile on her face. 

"You know," Vin returned her smile with one of his own. "I'm just worried enough about you to let you get away with using that line on me  _this_  time." 

 


	9. Wait until your Father…..

Reunions could be seen as most to be a happy condition of the human state. Long lost relatives, lovers who had been kept apart by distance and time, old friends lost to each other lives, all coming together in joyous unity and celebration of emotional ties that made man the social animal that he was. Unfortunately, it was rather a mixed blessing when Mike Larabee realised saw his father and Buck Wilmington striding in his direction following the timely arrival of the seven. Billy, Lilith, Elena Rose, the captive Young brothers and himself had been given warnings of their presence when they heard the sounds of gunfire, coupled with the voices that ordered the throwing away of guns and the cessation of hostilities. 

Buck Wilmington’s face flooded into a mixture of relief and then mild annoyance when he saw his daughter alive and well only to then notice her in the hold of Mike Larabee, which was anything but friendly in its intensity. In fact, he was holding her like one would hold a lover and while Buck knew that both children were much too young for anything like that, he was filled with an overwhelming sense of panic because he suddenly realised that she was not the little girl he remembered. Not the child whom he had been singularly pleased to have been with when she had taken her first steps or the little girl whom he bought ice cream for when she was weeping over the lost of her first baby tooth. She was a young woman now and Mike was looking at her…. 

The way he looked at Inez. 

That disarmed Buck a little at least until he approached her and saw the bruises on her face. Crossing the space between himself and his daughter in seconds, Buck felt a bubble of fury surface seeing those ugly welts against her skin. Upon his approach, Mike dropped his arm from around her shoulders and glanced anxiously in the direction of Chris, who was still a few paces behind Buck. 

"What happened to you?" He demanded. He had never in his life raised a hand to his daughter and when he found who had done this to her, there was going to be hell to pay. "Who did this to you Rose?" 

Elena Rose glanced at the two men that Billy was covering with his gun and whom Buck recognised as Hank Young and his brother Jesse and debated over telling her father what Jesse had intended to do to her. Knowing her father well enough, Elena Rose decided against it because there would be nothing that could stop Buck Wilmington from tearing the man apart with his bare hands if that piece of information reached him. "I was trying to keep them from hurting the others." She said after a moment, deciding that was the safest course of action.

Mike looked sharply at her at that admission. He almost balked at the suggestion that Jesse ought to walk away from what he had almost done to Elena Rose but he understood by the impassioned look in her eyes as she begged him to support her story, that it was Buck she was attempting to protect. "Yeah," he nodded slowly, fuming inwardly at having to protect Jesse Young from Buck’s wrath because he believed the man sorely deserved whatever retribution Buck was liable to inflict upon him for the attempt rape of his young daughter. "That’s what happened Sir." 

However, whether or not Buck knew the real truth did not detract him the slightest from the rage he was feeling now as seeing his Rose’s lovely face marked by the bruised caused by knuckles. He strode past the two children and went straight to Hank. Buck almost stood eye to eye with the man but it would not have mattered if he were an inch tall. No one harmed his child and got away with it.

"You like hitting little girls, you son of a bitch." Buck asked Hank with barely concealed rage.

Hank glared at Buck derisively but he never had a chance to make an offending remark because no sooner than the words had left the angry father’s lips, Buck flattened the man with a single blow. Hank and his considerable bulk went down in a heap, sending up a small cloud of dust when he landed a few feet away his still unconscious brother. Once the formalities were over, Buck looked over his shoulder at the children before him and demanded with far more intensity than either had ever heard him display. 

"Can someone tell me what the hell went on today?" He stared at the two children, aware that the answer lay with them more than it did with Lilith and Billy.

"What about the others?" Billy asked first, ignoring that question until he knew if the other children had been rescued although he guessed by the absence of the rest of the seven that they were dealing with the remainder of Hank's gang. 

"We found them hiding up in a cave in the ridge," Buck answered quickly. "Once we got the drop on the men who ride with this piece of crap, they were more than happy to get out of there. Ezra can't get Penny to stop complaining about the bugs or something." Buck shook his head, not understanding what that was all about. "Sam's hurt though." 

"Sam?" Mike's voice rose an octave. "Is she okay?" 

"One of those bastards shot her in the arm, looks like a flesh wound but when she got hit she took a nasty tumble down the tree she was hiding in." Buck said gravelly. "Nathan thinks she busted some ribs." 

"Oh god," Lilith exclaimed in horror, thinking that anyone who would shoot a child should have a special place in hell prepared for them. 

Chris said nothing but then Buck saw his eyes.  

"Now young man," Buck said to him aware that Chris was letting him to do the talking because he did not trust himself to speak, which bode badly for the younger Larabee. "You mind telling me what the hell you kids been up to today?"  

"Well," Elena Rose spoke up before Mike could. "You see it's quite a funny story. In fact, you’ll laugh when you hear it, I know I laughed." 

Everyone rolled their eyes collectively. 

"Its okay Rose," Mike gave her a look telling her that it was not necessary for her to cover up for him. He knew what he had done wrong. In the last few minutes, having seen what almost happened to Elena Rose, hearing about Sam's wounds and everything else that had transpired since emerging from the underground, Mike knew that he had endangered everybody by his full hardy taste for adventure. He knew it and he was prepared to accept whatever consequences came from this. However, he still found himself unable to meet his father’s eyes. 

"It was my fault," Mike admitted readily, more than aware after what had almost to happened to Elena Rose at the hands of Jesse Young and the dangers similarly faced by the rest of his friends, just how much he was responsible for. His quest of treasure and adventure had almost cost them their lives on numerous occasions today and Mike was not about to let anyone cover for him. He was prepared to face the consequences for his actions. "I found the map in the school house," he explained, unable to meet his father's eyes in all this. "I thought it was a treasure map and I convinced everyone we ought to go hunting for it. It was my fault that we got into mess and my fault only." 

Buck looked at the young man taking the brunt of responsibility and could not help thinking how much he was his father's son. Buck met Chris' gaze and knew the former gunslinger was madder than hell but restraining his own anger until the correct time. Considering how Chris could be about such things, Buck knew nothing he said would compare to the moment when he had to face his father.  

"You could gotten your fool selves killed." Buck retorted, with reproach in his voice but no real anger.  

"I know Sir." Mike nodded. "I am sorry for endangering Elena Rose." 

"Daddy, I wanted to go with him!" Elena Rose cried out. "We all did! Mike didn't have to convince us! We wanted to find treasure!" 

"Well," he shrugged, having already come to that conclusion but admiring his daughter's desire to exonerate Mike and suddenly felt a resurgence of that feeling of loss at realizing the steps she was taking towards womanhood and her future that was being solidified. Buck knew enough lovers and love to know what he saw in his child's eyes and it was not something that frightened him but gave him a warm glimpse of the future and that future was being played out by the obvious affection between them. "We'll talk about this later. Right now, let's get you home. That face of your needs looking at." He placed his hand on her shoulder and guided her away even though she wanted very much to remain with Mike when he faced Chris.

"On your feet!" Billy jabbed his foot into Hank's side. "We're going to town. I'm pretty sure the sheriff is gonna want to talk to you." Billy's guns was still aimed at Hank who got slowly to his feet, pulling his brother upright at the same time. The swelling on the side of Jesse's face had contorted his jaw out of shape, probably in direct inverse proportion to the dent in the shovel Mike had hit him. Lilith had relieved Hank of his gun earlier and was keeping it trained on the man, just in case he tried anything, though she doubted he would. 

When Billy and Lilith marched the two brothers out of the clearing to join the other members of the seven, it left Mike and Chris facing each other alone. 

For a few seconds neither man or boy spoke nor the silence between them lengthened into minutes. Mike knew from experience that this was usually a good indication that his father was furious with him and for once Mike also found that nothing Chris said could make him feel any worse. Knowing how close Elena Rose had come to being...he could not even think about it and Sam being shot and all the other near misses of the day, he felt singularly ashamed of himself. He had never felt so awful in his life that if there was some consolation to all this was the fact that Chris Larabee could not make him feel any worse. 

"What have you got to say for yourself?" Chris asked, his voice taut with anger. There had been a terrible moment when he heard that gunshot that Chris had felt himself revisited by horrific memories of coming home to find Adam and Sarah, of being too late to save them and thinking that he was to late to save either of his sons. With as much shame as he was unaware that his son was feeling at the moment, Chris had thought for a moment in a stray instant of fear to let it be anyone else but Kyle or Mike. He was mortified by his selfishness. 

"I'm sorry." Mike said quietly. 

"Sorry?" Chris glared at him sharply, angry and unable to stop it from letting it get the better of him. Being scared half to death tended to do that to a man. "Is that all you got to say? After convincing you friends to go on some stupid treasure and almost getting them killed, that's all you have to say?" 

Mike smoldered but kept his own temper in check. He was nearing something, something he had not expected to feel but now that it was here, Mike found he had difficulty reining it although he was not about to voice it just yet. "I know that." 

"I don't think you do." Chris retorted. "I thought I taught you better than that." 

Whatever it was inside him that he had been attempting to restrain, finally found its time and Mike turned on his father and said sharply. "Well I'm not you! I'm not perfect like you!" 

"What?" Chris looked at him, stunned by the tone of voice that did not at all sounded like a child's tantrum but a man's anger and it took him a further second for Mike's words to register in his brain. "What did you say?" He said with something akin to astonishment.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to be  _your_  son?" Mike demanded, unaware from where this fountainhead of repression was finding its voice but was powerless to stop it now that it had gushed forth from inside him. "I am eleven years old and everyone looks at me like I should have all the answers. Whenever something goes wrong, they all look to me to fix it, not just Sam, Rose, Peter or the others, but everyone! I'm always supposed to know what to do because you always know what to do and when I can't manage it, they treat me like I'm the joke end of a legend."

Too many years of seeing the look into many eyes, hearing the whispers behind his back of what he was supposed to be and their reproach when he was not quite up to the standard of his father had finally found expression. "I am only eleven years old and I am expected to know everything and that ain't fair. You know what the worse thing about all this is? I can stand it when it's them, when its people I don't know. I can even stand it when its Rose and my friends because that's how its always been but when it comes from you of all people, I just wish my name something else other than Larabee because then it hurts." 

Chris did not know what to say. He opened his mouth to protest and give Mike as good as he got, to flatly deny everything that the boy had said but he could not. He could not because it was true.

"I want to be a kid but if that's not good enough, if you can't accept me as anything than a younger version of yourself then forget all about me until I go through whatever happened to you to make you what you are now." Mike concluded and started to walk away, not waiting for his father, a gesture that in itself was unprecedented because it was always Mike that was following Chris. 

That was too much even for Chris and way to close to home. What had made him the man he was, had been the loss of his wife and son that almost destroyed him. It had sent him spiraling into the black abyss which immersed his soul in that dark so completely that it never really recovered, not even after wedding Mary and being father to four children. He looked at his son and was suddenly struck with the memory of how ashamed he had been when he had been discharged from the Academy. How he had been so afraid to face his father because of failing the General's expectations that they remained strangers for the next twenty years. Chris saw his son receding into the distance and knew that if he did not speak now, it would not be just space that came between them. 

Chris would lose him.  

"Michael!" Chris called out. 

Mike stopped, too conditioned to obey to ignore that voice. However, he took his time turning around and met his father's expression and saw that Chris was shocked but strangely enough, not angry. He had expected sharp rebuke but instead he got that one look from his father he could never understand, the one that only his mother seemed to be able to interpret.

Chris paused in front of his son and saw a face that was no longer the child he had been terrified to let out of his sight in Mike's early years. The face was evolving; the transformation was especially significant tonight Chris suspected because their relationship was about to change. "You know," Chris said meeting his son's eyes and saying with a little smile. "When I was your age, everyone expected me to join the army." 

"You mean like grandpa?" Mike questioned quizzically unable to imagine his father as a soldier, gunfighter definitely, but not a soldier. 

"Yeah," Chris answered. "When you have a father who is general and a career military man, people tend to expect that you'd go the same way. After awhile I started believing it too. I wanted to be so much like him that when I couldn't be, I ran away." 

"You don't run away from anything." Mike said somewhat incredulously, unable to imagine the concept of Chris Larabee turning tail and running from anything, let alone his father.  

"I ran from him." Chris responded firmly. "I kept running for 20 years because I couldn't face him. I thought that if he saw me, saw how  _not_  like him I ended up being, it would be the end of the world." 

"What happened?" Mike asked because his father seldom talked about his early years and Mike had the impression that there was something in his past that was too painful to reveal, something that was perhaps too much for  _anyone_  to bear.

"One day I stopped running and I met him face and to face and the funny thing was, he never expected me to be like him. He wanted me to find my own way. I'd been so caught up in what I was sure he was feeling, it never occurred to me that it might be different." Chris saw Mike starting to understand before he continued. "I didn't mean to make you think that I wanted you be like me. I never meant for that. I guess sometimes I worry too about you taking care of yourself that I forget what it is like to be kid, that being a kid is all about getting into trouble." 

"Really?" Mike asked, unable to believe that his father was being so understanding. Sometimes the old man could really surprise him. 

"Yeah," Chris nodded, placing his hand on his shoulder. "I love you Michael and nothing you do in your life will ever make me ashamed that you are my son. I ain't easy to please I know that and you are nowhere out of trouble for what you did today but I promise, I'll keep in mind that you're allowed a bit of rope being a kid and all." 

Mike smiled and hugged his father in a warm embrace. It was not the thing for Larabee men to be so emotional but for once the moment warranted it. Chris held his son for a few seconds, feeling a terrible sense of loss knowing that he had lost the boy today and gained a young man, growing into his own. Chris had never felt time catch up with him as profoundly as that one moment.  

"Now tell me," Chris said ruffling his hair when Mike pulled away. "What's happening with you and Rose?" A hint of the devil crept into his voice as he asked. 

Mike blushed involuntarily but was unafraid of the question. "I am going to marry her." He stated firmly, with neither hesitation or doubt in his voice. 

"Okay," Chris nodded, deciding that he could live with that and what Mike was talking about was something he did not have to worry about for a few years anyway. "Just let me be the one to tell Buck....." 

**********

 Vin had gone on ahead, deciding that he needed to get home immediately because no doubt Alex would want to treat Sam herself and he did not wish to be away from his wife at this delicate stage of her pregnancy. Fortunately, Nathan had given Sam something for the ride home so by the time Vin had left them to deal with Hank and his men, Sam had succumbed to the effects of the drug and was fast asleep. The would be treasure hunters had arrived at Cullen's Ridge with a wagon full of prospecting supplies and these were soon discarded in order to ferry the children home. While Billy rode with the seven, Lilith took charge of the seven since they would prefer to have their hands free but able to keep their children in sight since there was still the matter of moving the Young gang back to Four Corners. The seven were agreed in the assertion that the group may not be through giving them trouble and wanted the freedom not to worry about their wayward offspring in case Hank and his men did just that .

"If you would be so kind as to take our roving treasure hunters home," Ezra Standish said to Lilith who was perched up at the front of the wagon as he helped Penny into the back of the wagon. Then he glanced at his two children and winced at the unholy sight they were, covered in dirt and mud and tried to picture the look on Julia's face when they faced their mother. The thought brought a little smirk to Ezra's lips, which he forced away because he was meant to be angry with his children. "I expect that their mother will probably have a stroke upon seeing them and will no doubt scrub them raw as they so richly deserved." 

"But daddy," Penny looked at him with those emerald coloured eyes that were identical to Julia's and pouted. "You always said that we're never to let a golden opportunity slip by. We thought that there was treasure at the end of the map."

"Yeah," Peter grinned at Penny, grasping where she was heading with this. "You always said that we had to make the most of things. Like the time that you had to turn those working girls into real wives and that hospital and casino you tried to convince Uncle Nathan to build when those wagon people gave him land!"

"And....oh wait.... when Aunt Mary got kidnapped by Mr. Wickes and you had to wear a dress....."

Ezra just about choked on his spit and turned sharply around to see the sniggering looks his friends were trying to hide. Even Chris Larabee was trying hard to keep the mask of cool indifference fixed on his features but the attempt wavered when his lips curled up involuntarily. 

"Who...told....you....about....that?" Ezra asked in a low voice

Penny's eyes darted immediately behind him and Ezra turned around to see Buck making quiet signals with his hands at her until he realised he had been discovered and Ezra was glaring at him with a narrowing gaze. 

"Come on now Ezra," Buck shrugged. "That was a great story. I mean, I said you sang Red River Valley really well!" 

"I am going to postpone the shedding of blood until after my children are away from here," Ezra bristled and turned back to Penny and Peter. "And this impassioned plea will not work on me, my dears since I mastered the craft years before either of you were conceived." 

Both children frowned, having hoped that reminding their father of his past indiscretions would have the effect of negating their punishment. Unfortunately, it looked like they were not quite crafty enough to outwit Ezra just yet and by the looks of it, would not hearing any more stories from Uncle Buck either. 

"And we will talk when we get home Tommy." Nathan threw a similar warning at his son who was already in the wagon as he leaned over its side.

"But....." 

Nathan silenced him with a look and Tommy shrunk back into the corner where he was seated. In truth, Nathan was nowhere as angry as he was relieved that his child was safe and sound. Having heard something of the escape that Mike had planned for the kids when the Young gang had them captured convinced Nathan that Tommy had acquitted himself well. Besides, he knew what it was to be young and he also knew that sometimes when you had friends like these, it was hard not to get swept away with the tide of lunacy that always seemed to follow the seven and those around them. However, Tommy did not need to know that his father had thawed considerably on the subject because the boy had done wrong and Nathan was not above letting him suffer for awhile. 

"Just be very prepared for a lot of chores this week." Nathan retorted as he turned away to hear Annette making a plea on behalf of Adam. 

"I wanted to go daddy." Annette begged in her little voice as JD lifted her into the wagon. "And Addie made sure that I was okay, he made sure I didn't fall when we got pulled up the ropes over that big river in the cave." 

"Big river?" JD looked at Adam instinctively, whose eyes immediately dropped to the ground in guilt. 

"Yeah," Annette nodded. "And there was this room that filled up with water and when Mike opened the door, we all fell down this big hill." 

JD could only look at Adam and remark, "there ain't no words to describe how much trouble you are in and next to your mother, I won't even look like I'm hard on you."

* * *

 It was almost two weeks before the children could gather together in a group again. Aside from being collectively grounded for most part by their parents and being forced into performing a multitude of tasks to make up for going on their adventure underground, they were banned from being together for the same period. None of them could say which was worse since they had been such an ingrained part of one another's lives since the day they were born. However as punishments went, the older children in particular were glad that it was all said and done with. Kyle, Annette and Jimmy had come away from the adventure unscathed, mostly because their responsible siblings should have known better. Sam's broken ribs and her gunshot would were punishment enough as far as Alex and Vin Tanner were concerned. 

Elena Rose though bruised did not escape punishment however and ended spending the next two weeks working in the kitchens of the Standish Tavern. She had once envisioned how marvelous it would be to run the Tavern her mother seemed so effortlessly capable of doing. However, she soon come to the firm conclusion that there was nothing marvelous about having to fend off drunks, wash endless piles of shot glasses and navigate one's way through men who leered at her the same way Jesse had on the rare occasions she ventured out of the kitchen. It did not escape her how close she had come to suffering a fate worse than death and while outwardly, she did not show it, Elena Rose thought about it a lot. 

Mike noticed a significant improvement in his relationship with his father after their talk. Ever since that night, there was a newfound respect he supposed between them that made his punishment tolerable. He had been forced to accompany his father and Vin Tanner as they moved horses with his being forced to ride drag. The job required him to remain at the rear of the herd to keep an eye for any strays, which usually meant being covered with dust and dirt by day's end. Mike could still feel the grains of dirt in his skin and knew that it would be another month before he felt remotely clean again. Still, doing his penance had set things right between himself and his father. Mary was mostly thrilled that neither child was hurt even though Kyle continued to be a cause for concern even though no one had been able to get the reason for his melancholy out of him. 

Tommy in the meantime almost suffered a nervous breakdown when he was barred from using chemicals of any kind for the duration of two weeks. He spent his time doing chores around the house and staring longingly at his father's laboratory, praying that the exile would not kill him. However, more terrifying than the prospect of his enforced restriction continuing for longer than the appointed time, Tommy also feared that his father may rescind the promise to let him work in the lab as he had said the morning before the group had gone on their wild escapade. Still despite how much trouble it had landed him, Tommy knew he would not trade any of it considering the tantalizing glimpse into the future that had been made shown to him. Even though what he had seen was years ahead in the future, Tommy had something to reach for now. 

Penny found herself becoming an indentured worker at the Emporium, a task which she loathed to no end being surrounded by all those pretty things and not being able to admire them as pretty things ought to be, forced instead to stack boxes and sweep floors. No matter how many times she reminded her mother that a lady did not undertake such menial labor, Julia was adamant that she continued. However, Penny had to admit that working in the Emporium was not as bad for her as it was for Peter who found the whole idea of clothes and haberdashery the most infuriating thing to ever exist. He was dying to go outside and being trapped in a place where women came on a daily basis, needed help with their packages, not to mention on occasion require a model for little girls dresses whenever Penny was not quite tall enough.  

Still, his father regarded him with complete sympathy. 

Adam found himself in jail. Well not literally but he did spent the next four days painting the cells and every other space he was certain his father had actively sought in order for him to be kept quite busy for the next two weeks. Adam decided if he never saw another paint brush again, it would be too soon. Of course it did not help either that when Annette in her effort to lighten his load because she had come away unscathed, tried to aid his painting chores and ended up having so much of it in her hair, that Adam found himself in trouble again. Finally, he convinced Annette the best way for her to help him, was  _not_  to help him. 

"Does a baby every stop crying?" Sam grumbled, as the entire group lay sprawled in the hay in the loft, staring at the night sky beyond the doors of the open window. They were well and truly into summer now and the weather was hot and balmy. Bodies strewn around the loft in their usual fashion, some side by side and others anywhere they pleased, their parents knew well enough to leave them here for the rest of the night need be, collecting them only when it was time to go home. Besides, this was a far safer solution than anything else the children might get up together. After what happened to them with Hank Young and his gang who were run out of town shortly after, all the parents knew not to underestimate just how much trouble they could get into. 

The families of the seven were gathered at the ranch to celebrate the birth of Sam's new baby brother, Daniel Christopher Tanner born little more than a week earlier. Although labor had been difficult, both mother and child had come through the ordeal well enough while Sam was starting to wonder if that grin on her father's face would have to be surgically removed. Still even though the new arrival to her family seemed to do nothing but squeal and drool, Sam figured she could probably get used to it. 

"You think crying is bad," Elena Rose snorted. "Wait until they start walking and they follow you around. It's like having a dog that won't know when to go home." 

"Hey!" Jimmy exclaimed raising his head from his position next to Kyle enough to throw her a look of annoyance. "I don't follow you around!"

Elena flashed him a smile which indicated that she did not really mean it, having remembered how valiantly her brother had tried to come to her rescue when Hank had hit her. 

"You know," Sam let out a sigh and she remained next to Peter and Penny. "I was thinking of all the things I was going to teach a little sister, you know hunting, how to use a slingshot, how to climb a tree and fish, now I'm just going to have to teach all those things to a boy." 

Mike raised his head from where he was nestled comfortably next to Elena Rose and gave Sam a look. "You're one of kind Sam." The remark was not entirely a compliment. 

"Do any of you think about what happened in that cave?" Peter asked suddenly, capturing all their attention.

"I think about it a lot." Kyle said softly and Mike slid an arm around his brother, holding him closer for some reason. Mike had been trying to coax what Kyle had seen in that pool out of his younger brother but the boy was adamant to keep his secrets. 

"Well you were mean to me." Annette stated with a little bit of a huff. 

"I was mean to you?" Kyle looked at her in confusion.  

"When I drank the water," Annette sat up from where she was behind Penny, "I saw you and you were sheriff." 

"Kyle becomes sheriff?" Mike said with a smile. "Hey not bad little brother." He grinned. 

"But I can't be sheriff." Kyle returned, having been burdened with the image of those dead bodies for weeks now. He knew what he had seen and it was not a future he thought he had survived, neither he or Billy. "I became a soldier in a war." 

"Well you don't stay a soldier forever," she looked at him as if he was stupid. Well he was a boy. "You come home from the war and then you become sheriff because daddy wanted to go fishing." Annette informed Adam dutifully in case he was wondering. 

"You mean I don't die?" Kyle exclaimed almost joyously.  

"You thought you died in a war?" Mike gasped, understanding why his brother had been so withdrawn. The future he had seen was full of hope and life, it had never occurred to him that Kyle could have seen a future not so optimistic and felt inwardly ashamed he had not guessed before this. "Jeez, Kyle, talk to me about these things would you?" 

"I didn't know it would do any good." Kyle answered truthfully.

"Don't be silly," Tommy said automatically. "We your friends ain't we? You got to tell us these things. We can't help if we don't know!" 

"Yeah," Kyle beamed at Mike, feeling profoundly better now that he knew that he had a future and it was not with those corpses on a field far away in time in another world, removed from this one. "I know." 

"Hey Sam," Adam asked. "Can I see your gunshot wound!" 

"Oh gross!" Penny retorted as Sam rolled up her sleeve and revealed the gunshot wound on her skin. The skin around the entry wound had turned purple and all the children leaned in for a closer look. 

"I swear, I am not gonna marry you if you're like this when we grow up," Penny frowned and added. 

"Run Adam, run now!" Peter called out gleefully, "Its not too late!" He then descended into loud chuckles that only succeeded in having Penny jab him the ribs.  

"Penny I am not marrying you," Adam said hotly. "I couldn't even write something that scary!"

These brought them rest of the group into a fit of giggles and as Penny and Adam started arguing Mike could only stare at Elena Rose and think to himself that the present was almost as perfect as the future would someday be. 

* * *

"How are they doing in there?" Lilith asked, following Chris' instruction to herself and Billy to check on the kids when they had decided to go for a moon light walk. 

"Well they aren't off treasure hunting," Billy declared. He had made this assessment after he had stuck his head through the barn door and was greeted by peals of laughter and bits of hay drifting from the loft above, indicating the signs of life even if he did not believe it by the sounds he was hearing. 

"Hey it wasn't so bad," Lilith remarked linking her arm through Billy's as they drew away from the barn. "I wonder what was really at the end of the map though?" 

"Annette said it makes you know the future." Billy replied, not entirely sure whether or not Annette had been joking when he had asked the question days later. In fact, now that he thought about it, the other children had been pretty closed mouthed about what they had found in the cave. Billy wondered if there was not an element of truth to Annette's words, that somewhere in Cullen's Ridge there was an oracle of prophecy for the future.  

"The future." Lilith said resting her head against his shoulder as she stared into stars. "Is a lot more fun when it's a surprise." 

As Billy took a deep breath of her hair and gazed into the same stars overhead, he could not help but agree with that. If it was there in Cullens Ridge, a way to see the future, Billy was in no hurry to seek it out. Besides, the good thing about the future was that it eventually found a way to let you know all its secrets. 

Someday.

 

**THE END**

 

 


End file.
